More cases of antibiotic resistant gonorrhoea identified in England

A woman in her 20s in London and a heterosexual couple in their 20s based in the Midlands have recently been diagnosed with a strain of N. gonorrhoeae with resistance to the antibiotic ceftriaxone.

Ceftriaxone is the main antibiotic used to treat gonorrhoea in the UK and being infected with a ceftriaxone resistant strain means that this antibiotic will not easily treat the infection. Follow-up tests are still awaited to see if treatment has been successful in these 3 recent cases.

Further public health investigations are underway but there are currently no known connections between the cases in London and the Midlands.

Ceftriaxone resistance is most common in the Asia-Pacific region and is occasionally detected in the UK in people who have visited or who have moved to the UK from this region.