Huge Surge in Cases of ‘Super Gonorrhea’ Infections Detected

First we called them “venereal” diseases after Venus, the goddess of love. Then we switched to “sexually transmitted diseases.” But the word “disease” was apparently too direct, so we opted for “sexually transmitted infections.” 

Whatever you want to call them, the ailments are on the rise, and none more in the UK than gonorrhea. According to the UK Health Security Agency, more than 85,000 new cases of the nasty bug were reported in calendar year 2023. This is the highest number on record since 1918. 

What’s worse is that this current strain is hardier than others. What medicos are calling an “imported strain” of gonorrhea (though they won’t say where it’s imported from) has proven to be resistant to the antibiotic used as a first-line treatment for the disease. The UKHSA warns that while gonorrhea is usually a treatable infection (it’s a bacterium, thus it is vulnerable to antibiotics), the new-to-the-UK strain is often able to beat the drugs, and that’s bad news for patients. 

If that were not bad enough, the current strain is particularly difficult to treat when it expresses the disease in a patient’s throat. While the disease is thought of primarily for how it affects the sexual organs, gonorrhea can erupt in the throat, the anus, the mouth, the eyes, and more. 

Though there is some difference between common symptoms in men and women, there is much overlap. Sufferers usually experience painful urination and may find discharge on urination. The U.S.-based Mayo Clinic has a good overview of symptoms in both sexes as well as the course of treatment. 

The UK has so far tracked 15 cases of the antibiotic-resistant “super-strain” between June of 2022 and May of 2024. A third of these cases were described as “extensively drug-resistant,” meaning that the infections outlasted first-line, second-line, and tertiary antibiotics. 

The disease is showing up most frequently in heterosexuals who travel abroad and come back home with the infections. The UKHSA’s Helen Fifer says doctors are worried that the disease will continue evolving until it resists or is utterly unaffected by any known antibiotics. That would make gonorrhea essentially “untreatable,” she said. 

As with all sexually transmitted diseases, the best protection is abstinence or having relations only within a monogamous relationship. The use of condoms can provide some, but not total, protection from transmitting or acquiring gonorrhea.