Super-gonorrhoea’s spread ‘causing huge concern’

Doctors have been expressing a “huge concern” over super-gonorrhoea as it has been spreading widely across England and to gay men.

The bug emerged last year in Leeds and prompted a national alert as one of the main treatments against the bug was useless.

BBC News reports that doctors fear the infection will soon become untreatable and, as of right now, 34 cases of the bug have been confirmed and detected in the West Midlands, London and Southern England.

The outbreak reportedly started among straight couples and has since spread to gay men.

Peter Greenhouse, a consultant in sexual health, spoke to BBC News and said “We’ve been worried it would spread to men who have sex with men.”

“The problem is [they] tend to spread infections a lot faster as they change partners more quickly.”

Two drugs, azithromycin and ceftriaxone, are being used to fight the infection but the bug is now resisting azithromycin and doctors fear that it will soon start to resist ceftriaxone too.

The head of the sexually transmitted infections unit at Public Health England, Doctor Gwenda Hughes, has urged people to practice safe sex to minimise the risk of infection.