The report of the first ever case of “super-gonorrhoea” – a bug which is resistant to frontline antibiotics – comes as no surprise to experts in sexually transmitted diseases.

Syphilis, HIV and a relatively new sexually transmitted disease – Mycoplasma genitalium – are also developing resistance to antimicrobial treatments.

On Wednesday, Public Health England announced the world’s “worst ever” case of super-gonorrhea, contracted by a British man after a sexual encounter with a woman in South East Asia. The main antibiotic combination failed to cure the infection and doctors are hoping that one final treatment may work.

Infectious disease experts have long warned about the spread of drug-resistant gonorrhoea. A report by the World Health Organization last year revealed that gonorrhoea was becoming much harder to treat, with 77 countries reporting resistance to at least one antibiotic.

In 2016, WHO changed its gonorrhoea treatment guidelines, advising doctors to use a combination of the antibiotics azithromycin and ceftriaxone: this failed to work in the case of the British man and it is why doctors are so concerned. It is the standard treatment for gonorrhoea because so many other drugs have failed over the years.