Austrian contracts drug-resistant ‘super’ gonorrhea in Cambodian sex worker – World News

The unidentified man, in his 50s, was on vacation in April when he slept with the woman, and when he returned home five days later, he noticed a burning sensation when urinating

An Austrian man reportedly contracted drug-resistant gonorrhea after having unprotected sex with a sex worker in Cambodia.

The unidentified man, in his 50s, was on vacation in April when he slept with the woman.

When he returned home five days later, he reportedly felt a burning pain when urinating and discharge from his penis.

Tests revealed he had the STI and he was given a course of antibiotics.

While his symptoms were disappearing, he still tested positive, meaning treatment had failed.

Doctors have said this strain is “largely drug-resistant” and have warned that if allowed to spread, it could make gonorrhea untreatable, according to one report

dr Sonja Pleininger of the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, the report’s lead author, said such strains “pose a major global public health threat”. reports Mail Online.

She said: “If such strains manage to establish persistent transmission, many cases of gonorrhea could become incurable.”

The authors also said that new drugs targeting the gonorrhea bacteria or the development of a vaccine are critical to curbing drug-resistant strains.

The man received a week’s treatment of amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, a combination antibiotic treatment, and later tested negative.

The Cambodian sex worker has not been traced, meaning it could happen again, the experts who detailed the man’s case told the magazine euro surveillance.

Gonorrhea is the second most common sexually transmitted disease in the UK, with almost 60,000 people contracting it each year.

Symptoms can include a thick green or yellow discharge from the vagina or penis and painful urination.

If left untreated, it can lead to serious complications such as infertility and potentially life-threatening pelvic inflammatory disease in women.

In March, the antibiotic-resistant “super strain” was found in several regions of the UK.

Three cases of sexually transmitted infections have been confirmed by the UK Health Security Agency, in addition to one case announced in December 2021.

STIs peak in London, which is not surprising given the area’s population.

It is because gonorrhea has developed resistance to a number of antibiotics, known as antimicrobial resistance.

Ciprofloxacin used to be prescribed by doctors in the UK and as of 2005 it was no longer recommended as the bacteria had become resistant to it.

In 2011, cefixime was also dropped for the same reason.

The Austrian had shown resistance to azithromycin, which is one of the two main antibiotics used to treat gonorrhea in Europe.