(Independent) – Gonorrhea diagnoses in England have risen to their highest level for 40 years and jumped 26 percent since 2017, sparking warnings from health chiefs about the threat from drug-resistant strains. Public Health England figures show there were 447,694 sexually transmitted infections diagnosed in 2018, a rise of 5 percent in a year. The biggest increase was in gonorrhoea where there were 56,259 cases diagnosed, 14,000 more than in 2017. Experts warned about the UK’s first case of “super-gonorrhea” a
year ago, although the man was eventually cured it required extensive treatment with a cocktail of drugs usually held in reserve for the most serious infection. “This is of concern given the three cases of extensively drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae identified in England in 2018,” PHE warned. “The number of gonorrhea diagnosed in 2018 was the largest annual number reported since 1978, since 2009, gonorrhea diagnoses have risen by 249 percent (from 16,141 to 56,259), mostly due to increases among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (referred to collectively as ‘MSM’).” READ MORE
