A mutant strain of gonorrhea is breaking out of Leeds and spreading across the north of England, report the BBC.
The nasty venereal disease is resistant to antibiotic azithromycin, which is normally used to combat the condition alongside another drug, ceftriaxone.
The number of confirmed cases in Leeds is in double-figures, and it has also now been found in the northern towns of Macclesfield, Oldham and Scunthorpe.
Medics are concerned that the ‘super gonorrhea’ is spreading at such an alarming rate. They warn that there are likely to be more undiagnosed cases out there.
Peter Greenhouse, a consultant in sexual health, told the BBC: “This azithromycin highly resistant outbreak is the first one that has triggered a national alert.
“It doesn’t sound like an awful lot of people, but the implication is there’s a lot more of this strain out there and we need to stamp it out as quickly as possible.
“If this becomes the predominant strain in the UK we’re in big trouble, so we have to be really meticulous in making sure each of these individuals has all their contacts traced and treated.”
Dr Jan Clarke, of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, added: “It was sufficiently serious to alert our whole national chain of clinics that there is the possibility that we’ve got a very resistant strain of gonorrhoea.
“We are really skating on thin ice as far as treating gonorrhoea is concerned at the moment.”
