Gonorrhoea cases more than triple across county in decade

CASES of a sexually transmitted infection (STI) have more than tripled across Nottinghamshire since 2012 and health officials have warned it could become "untreatable" as it becomes resistant to antibiotics.

- By ZENA HAWLEY

Nottingham is the fourth most likely place to catch gonorrhoea after London, Liverpool and Brighton.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) says new provisional STI surveillance data shows a rise in antibiotic-resistant gonorrhoea cases, including extensively drug resistant (XDR) strains. While most gonorrhoea infections can be treated, certain strains, particularly ceftriaxone-resistant gonorrhoea, present a much greater challenge.

In 2023 the latest full-year data available there were a record 85,000 cases of all strains of gonorrhoea in England, the highest number in more than 100 years. Of those, 953 cases were in Nottingham a rise from 259 in 2012.

Similar rises have been seen across the rest of Nottinghamshire with Mansfield and Bassetlaw seeing more than a four-fold increase and Newark and Sherwood a massive rise with more than five times the cases in 2023 compared to 2012 - up from 19 to 102 - and the same in Rushcliffe, up from 16 cases to 83 in the same period.