Gonorrhea is like an extremely persistent garden weed. As far as sexually transmitted diseases go, it’s relatively easy to get and requires a multipronged offensive to annihilate. And even if you’ve thwarted it once already, you’re still left vulnerable to reinfection.
So far, doctors have been pretty damn good at treating the disease, which is partially why England’s public health agency has just sounded the alarm over a rise in “super-gonorrhea” among Brits.
According to an incident response this week from Public Health England, reported cases of an extremely drug-resistant type of gonorrhea have recently spiked. The bacterial strain first emerged in Leeds and the north of England, and has since spread outward, as far as London.