A man from Austria is said to have contracted 'super gonorrhea' while on holiday.
Look, we all bring things back from holiday, sometimes it's wine and other times it's perfume. But one thing absolutely no one wants to bring back is super gonorrhea.
Super gonorrhea, a terrible name for a superhero, is an antibiotic-resistant strain of the STI.
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So, what happened to the man in his 50s who bought home more than he bargained for?
Well, according to a study cited by Eurosurveillance: "The case from Austria reported about condom-less sexual contact with a female sex worker in Cambodia 5 days before onset of symptoms. A limitation of our study is that the female sex worker could not be traced."
'Could not be traced' isn't exactly what you want to hear from medical professionals.
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As there is currently no vaccine for gonorrhea, antibiotics remain the first-line treatment, with the study adding: "Early and effective diagnosis and antimicrobial treatment of gonorrhoea are essential."
However, if those antibiotics fail to clear a case up, as with super gonorrhea, the STI can quickly become 'a major global public health concern.'
You see, if left untreated gonorrhea can cause 'serious complications' and can 'compromise the management and control of gonorrhoea on the public health level'.
So, what do those conducting the study recommend? Well, 'increased awareness of the spread' and 'rapid identification' are a start to stop super gonorrhea from spreading - can you imagine Track and Trace, but for super gonorrhea?
Still, this isn't the first time super gonorrhea has made the news recently as back in 2018, multiple cases were identified across the world.
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Then in 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned against a rise in super gonorrhoea. Speaking to The Sun, a WHO spokesperson said: "Overuse of antibiotics in the community can fuel the emergence of antimicrobial resistance in gonorrhoea.
"Azithromycin - a common antibiotic for treating respiratory infections - was used for Covid-19 treatment earlier in the epidemic. During the pandemic, STI services have also been disrupted. This means more STI cases are not diagnosed properly with more people self-medicating as a result.
"Such a situation can fuel emergence of resistance in gonorrhoea including gonorrhoea superbug (super gonorrhoea) or gonorrhoea with high level resistance to current antibiotics recommended to treat it."
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The spokesperson added: "Resistant strains in gonorrhoea continue to be a critical challenge to STI prevention and control efforts."
And as if that wasn't enough to stress you out, in 2020 the UK's gonorrhea rate was so high public health officials had to issue a warning.
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