British Man Diagnosed with Super-Gonorrhea after Trip to Asia

A British man was diagnosed with the worst case of gonorrhea in the world after a trip to South-East Asia. Doctors said the man’s super-gonorrhea failed to respond to two powerful antibiotics in a world’s first.

This means that his condition is untreatable. The Public Health England confirmed that the British man is the first patient to be diagnosed with a case of gonorrhea that is resistant to all treatments.

According to the doctors, the man’s STI failed to respond to ceftriaxone and azithromycin, two potent antibiotics that usually cure the infection. The unnamed patient found he caught the disease one month after returning to the U.K.

We are investigating a case who has gonorrhoea which was acquired abroad and is very resistant to the recommended first-line treatment,

noted the chief of Public Health England’s STI unit Dr. Gwenda Hughes.

Hughes added that it is the first time the agency learns about such a high-level of resistance in a case of gonorrhea.

The patient acknowledged that he had a sexual encounter with an Asian woman during the trip while having a female partner back in the U.K.

Gonorrhea Is Increasingly Hard to Treat

A person can catch gonorrhea via vaginal, anal, and oral intercourse. Symptoms appear after two weeks since the infection, and include inflammation in the genital area, pain when urinating, and unusual discharges from the genitalia.

Ten percent of men and 75% of women having the infection do not develop any symptoms, but they can pass it to their partners. If it is left untreated it can lead to infertility. According to the WHO, 78 million people catch the bug every year globally.

In February, Australian authorities warned against a drug-resistant strain spreading across the country. From April to September, 742 Australians were diagnosed with the resistant infection, which marks a 75% increase from a year earlier.
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