Earlier this year, a UK man became the first person to be diagnosed with a case of gonorrhoea with “high-level resistance” to the latest dual-drug treatment for the STI. According to Public Health England, it was the first time a case had displayed such high-level resistance to both drugs and most other commonly used antibiotics. Cases of gonorrhoea resistant to one antibiotic almost tripled in the six months to February but Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendon Murphy said the latest cases were resistant to both commonly used antibiotics. “Drug-resistant gonorrhoea exists in many countries, including Australia,” he said. “However, these latest cases and a recent one in the UK appear to be the first reported that are resistant to all of the antibiotics that have been in routine use against gonorrhoea.”

Gonorrhea is spread through vaginal, anal and oral sex and can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility in women if left untreated. The UK infection was also reportedly picked up in south-east Asia. The disease does not always cause symptoms but discharge from the penis or vagina are the most common signs. In 2014, Australia introduced a dual-antibiotic treatment for gonorrhoea, comprised of ceftriaxone and azithromycin, to combat a strain resistant to ceftriaxone alone. Regular cases of the infection increased significantly over the past five years and a recent report found cases of gonorrhea resistant to one of the two drugs had tripled in six months.

At the time, National Alert System for Critical Antimicrobial Resistance senior medical adviser John Turnidge ceftriaxone was still effective against N. gonorrhoeae, but the results were “a warning shot across the bow”. “It’s getting harder to treat illnesses with effective antibiotics. “The risk is: 'Are the [antimicrobial] treatments we are using going to survive?' ” Doctors have repeatedly been asked to stop overprescribing antibiotics, with widespread use of the drugs in animal rearing also coming in for criticism. According to the chief medical officer, local jurisdictions are following up with the affected people to confirm where they picked up the infections and whether any other sexual partners needed to be contacted.