Super resistant gonorrhoea may become untreatable

Improper use of antibiotics has created a strain of gonorrhoea which is up to eight times more resistant to anything scientists have seen before.

BBC Health Check spoke to Professor Catherine Ison from the UK's Health Protection Agency about new strains of gonorrhoea that have been found to be resistant to drug treatment.

This strain of gonorrhoea has developed resistance when antibiotics have partially killed the infection but not completely.

She explained that while the new super resistant gonorrhoea is between four and eight times more resistant to drug treatment than any other strains, it is still treatable, but warned that in the coming years the situation may get worse.

"We've started to move into the stage where we are seeing patients who are failing therapy. We've been seeing increasing levels of the strains which are going to be more difficult to treat, over the last three or four years," Ms Ison said.

There are no new treatments available, she warned.

Magnus Unemo, professor at the Swedish Reference Laboratory for Pathogenic Neisseria in Sweden said that the development was both alarming and predictable.