Doctors have expressed “huge concern” that super-gonorrhoea has spread widely across England and to gay men.

The new superbug prompted a national alert last year when it emerged in Leeds, as one of the main treatments had become useless against it.

Public Health England acknowledges measures to contain the outbreak have been of “limited success”.

Doctors fear the sexually transmitted infection, which can cause infertility, could soon become untreatable.

Cases of super-gonorrhoea have now been detected in the West Midlands, London and southern England.

Only 34 cases have been officially confirmed in laboratory testing, but this is likely to be the tip of the iceberg of an infection that can be symptomless.

‘Infections spread faster’

The outbreak started in straight couples, but is now being seen in gay men too.

“We’ve been worried it would spread to men who have sex with men,” Peter Greenhouse, a consultant in sexual health based in Bristol, told BBC News.

“The problem is [they] tend to spread infections a lot faster simply as they change partners more quickly.”

They are also more likely to have gonorrhoea in their throats. There further resistance is more likely to develop as antibiotics get to the throat in lower doses and the area is also teeming with other bacteria that can share the resistance to drugs.

The bacterium that causes gonorrhoea is extremely adept at shrugging off our best antibiotics.

So two drugs – azithromycin and ceftriaxone – are used in combination.

But now resistance to azithromycin is spreading, doctors fear it is only a matter of time before ceftriaxone fails too.

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