A UK man has contracted the “world’s worst” case of “super” gonorrhea – a powerful new version of the sexually transmitted disease that’s highly resistant to a number of antibiotics, according to a report.
Public Health England announced that the unidentified man picked up the dangerous STD during a hookup with a woman in South East Asia earlier this year.
After developing symptoms a month later, the man’s urine tested negative for the bacterial infection – but a throat swab was positive.
The World Health Organization and the European Centres for Disease Control agree that his case is the first globally to show resistance to the first-line treatment for gonorrhea — a combination of antibiotics azithromycin and ceftriaxone — and other drugs, the BBC reported.
“This is the first time a case has displayed such high-level resistance to both of these drugs and to most other commonly used antibiotics,” said Gwenda Hughes, a doctor with Public Health England.
The man is currently being treated with IV antibiotic ertapenem, which appears to be working — but officials won’t know for sure until mid-April.
Health officials are scrambling to trace any sexual partners to the man in an effort to stop the nasty infection from spreading.
The man’s regular partner in the UK hasn’t tested positive.
Gonorrhea is a very common STD that can be spread through unprotected sexual contact. In most cases, men and women who are infected never show symptom, which can include burning while urinating and white, yellow or green discharge from the penis or vagina. It is caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
Left untreated, gonorrhea can cause infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease and can be passed on from a pregnant woman to her child.
Last year, the WHO said antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea was on the rise. An estimated 78 million people are infected with gonorrhea every year.
Cases of an azithromycin-resistant strain of “super” gonorrhea recently tripled in Australia.
Source: New York Post