18/09/2015

'Super-Gonorrhoea' Outbreak Detected In Northern England

An outbreak of "super-gonorrhoea" has been detected in northern England, the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV have reported.

High level azithromycin resistant gonorrhoea was first detected in Leeds in March 2015 and now appears to have spread to neighbouring areas in the north of England the report claims.

Eleven cases have been reported in the Leeds outbreak, and since then a further four cases have been detected in patients from Macclesfield, Oldham and Scunthorpe.

Public Health England (PHE) said that it is concerned the effectiveness of current front-line dual therapy for gonorrhoea will be threatened if the resistant strain continues to spread unchecked.

An alert has been issued to microbiologists to raise awareness and encourage reporting of high level azithromycin strains to Sexually Transmitted Bacteria Reference Unit (STBRU) for confirmation.

If a strain of high level azithromycin resistant gonorrhoea is detected in a patients clinicians are urged to make particularly rigorous efforts to ensure patients are followed up and receive a test of cure (TOC) and that all their partners are contacted, tested and, where necessary, treated and followed up for TOC.

Clinicians have also been asked to be especially vigilant to potential treatment failure in their patients and report any cases where this is suspected through the treatment failure reporting form available on the HIV & STI website.

(MH/LM)

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