Highly drug resistant gonorrhoea outbreak triggers national alert in the UK

A national alert had been sounded in the UK after an outbreak of highly drug-resistant gonorrhoea in the north of England.

Public Health England had so far detected 15 cases according to the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV.

It added that the PHE's sexually transmitted bacteria reference unit had rarely received reports of infection being highly resistant to the azithromycin drug earlier.

The infection was first detected in Leeds in March and had spread since, with cases reported in patients from Macclesfield, Oldham and Scunthorpe.

All of the cases involved heterosexual patients, and some people had reported partners from other parts of England.

The association said, ''An outbreak control team meeting has been convened and [the bacteria reference unit is] currently performing next-generation sequencing on these strains to better understand the molecular epidemiology.''

It added, ''PHE is concerned that the effectiveness of current frontline dual therapy for gonorrhoea will be threatened if this resistant strain continues to spread unchecked.''

The number of infections detected might seem small, said Peter Greenhouse, a consultant in sexual health based in Bristol, but there may be cases not yet detected. He told the BBC, ''This azithromycin highly resistant outbreak is the first one that has triggered a national alert.

''It doesn't sound like an awful lot of people, but the implication is there's a lot more of this strain out there and we need to stamp it out as quickly as possible. If this becomes the predominant strain in the UK we're in big trouble, so we have to be really meticulous in making sure each of these individuals has all their contacts traced and treated.''

According to the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, all cases had been in heterosexuals and some had reported sexual partners from across England.

Dr Jan Clarke, the organisation's president, told the BBC, "It was sufficiently serious to alert our whole national chain of clinics that there is the possibility that we've got a very resistant strain of gonorrhoea.

"We are really skating on thin ice as far as treating gonorrhoea is concerned at the moment."

The infection spreads through unprotected vaginal, oral and anal sex.

Symptoms could include a thick green or yellow discharge from sexual organs, pain while urinating and bleeding between periods.

If left untreated the infection could lead to infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease and could be passed on to a child during pregnancy.