New report shows mixed progress on gonorrhea prevention

A new report from Public Health England has demonstrated the challenges that still need to be overcome in the prevention of gonorrhoea.

On the positive side, a slowdown in emerging gonorrhoea resistance to first-line treatments was noted in 2012, which has been attributed to significant public health efforts, coupled with a successful recent switch in prescribing guidelines.

For the second year, cefixime resistance risk declined in England and Wales, while azithromycin resistance only increased from 0.5 percent to 0.7 percent of laboratory tests, with very little drift towards potential resistance to ceftriaxone being observed.

However, one-fifth of all diagnoses in 2012 were repeat cases and around 40 percent had chlamydia as well as gonorrhoea, with total new gonorrhoea diagnoses in England jumping 21 percent to 25,525 cases in 2012.

Dr Gwenda Hughes, head of sexually transmitted infections surveillance at Public Health England, said: "These findings reinforce the importance of continued sexual health promotion work and maintaining easy access to sexual health services and testing in England."

Young men and women are affected most prominently by this sexually-transmitted infection, with the highest rates of gonorrhoea seen in women aged 16 to 19 and men aged 20 to 24.