Super gonorrhoea warning
Super gonorrhoea poses a 'major global threat', scientists have
warned in the wake of an Austrian man catching a drug-resistant
version of the STI (
https://bit.ly/3ygvuJy).
The unidentified man, in his 50s, became infected after having
unprotected sex with a prostitute while on holiday in Cambodia
in April.
Five days later, when he returned home, he experienced a burning
pain while urinating and discharge from his penis.
Medical tests reveled he had gonorrhoea and he was given standard
antibiotics.
While the drugs made his symptoms disappear, the man still tested
positive which meant the treatment had technically failed.
Doctors called his strain 'extensively drug resistant' and different
to ones seen before.
They warned it could effectively render gonorrhoea untreatable,
if it was allowed to spread.
Lead author of the report, Dr Sonja Pleininger of the Austrian
Agency for Health and Food Safety, said such strains 'poses a major
global public health threat'.
'If such strains manage to establish a sustained transmission, many
gonorrhoea cases might become untreatable,' she said.
