British man catches "super strength gonorrhea" from Southeast Asian chick
Posted: June 27th, 2018, 5:33 pm
https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... gonorrhoea
A man in the UK has contracted a super-strength strand of gonorrhoea believed to be the first case globally to resist the main antibiotic treatment.
Public Health England (PHE) said the patient had a regular female partner in the UK, but contracted the infection from a sexual encounter with a woman in south-east Asia. He visited a health clinic for treatment in early 2018.
Attempts to get rid of the sexually transmitted infection with the recommended treatment – a combination of antibiotics azithromycin and ceftriaxone – have failed.
“We are investigating a case who has gonorrhoea which was acquired abroad and is very resistant to the recommended first line treatment,” Dr Gwenda Hughes, the head of PHE’s STI section said.
“This is the first time a case has displayed such high-level resistance to both of these drugs and to most other commonly used antibiotics.”
An analysis of the case for PHE notes it is the “first global report” of the infection resisting both antibiotics.