United Kingdom to pioneer vaccine against gonorrhea

Thus, over the past few decades, many antibiotic treatments have been abandoned because gonococci have become resistant to them.

In the United Kingdom, the only strategies used to control gonorrhea are the use of condoms during intercourse, periodic screening of asymptomatic individuals at high risk for the infection, and treatment of all detected cases, whether symptomatic or not.

Faced with an apparent failure to contain the epidemic, last week the British Department of Health’s advisory panel of infectious disease experts issued unexpected advice. They recommended the initiation of a vaccination campaign in the country against Meningitis to reduce cases of gonorrhea.

The recommendation is based on a series of studies conducted since 2004 with the subtype B meningococcus vaccine that, surprisingly, demonstrate fewer gonorrhea infections in vaccinated individuals.

In studies in New Zealand, Canada, Australia, the United States, and Italy, protection against gonorrhea ranged from 26 to 59%, declining after a few years of vaccination and hypothesized to be a mechanism of action. Proteins from subtype B meningococcus and gonococcus (Neisseria meningitis This is Neisseria gonorrhoearespectively).

What is unexpected about the British committee’s recommendation is that it is based solely on the results of observational studies. The international scientific community eagerly awaits the results of several ongoing randomized clinical trials to confirm or refute the findings of preliminary studies.