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The Star
6 days ago
- Health
- The Star
Britain launches world's first gonorrhoea vaccination programme
The resurgence of gonorrhoea in Britain has prompted the government there to start the world's first vaccination programme against the STD. — AFP Health authorities in England announced on May 21 (2025) the rollout of a world-first vaccine programme for gonorrhoea, amid record levels of the sexually-transmitted disease (STD). Gonorrhoea cases in England in 2023 topped 85,000 – the highest number since records began in 1918 – with doctors warning of rising levels of antibiotic resistance. Chief executive Richard Angell of the Terrence Higgins Trust, Britain's leading HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and sexual health charity, hailed the initiative as a 'game changer'. 'This alone could cut 40% of new gonorrhoea cases,' he said. National Health Service (NHS) England's primary and community care director Dr Amanda Doyle said it would be the world's 'first' routine vaccination programme for the disease. She described it as a 'huge step forward for sexual health', adding that it would also help 're- duce the rising rates of antibiotic resistance strains of the bacteria'. The programme deploys an existing jab normally used to protect children against the meningococcal B disease, a serious bacterial infection that can cause meningitis and sepsis. Known as 4CMenB, it is part of the routine British childhood vaccination programme given to babies at eight weeks, 16 weeks and one year of age. Under the new programme, the jabs will be offered to those considered most at risk: gay and bisexual men with a recent history of multiple sexual partners or a bacterial sexually-transmitted infection. 'This vaccination programme is a hugely welcome intervention at a time when we're seeing very concerning levels of gonorrhoea, including antibiotic-resistant gonorrhoea,' said NHS consultant epidemiologist Dr Sema Mandal. 'In 2023, we saw gonorrhoea diagnoses reach their highest since records began in 1918,' added the deputy director of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). During appointments, patients will also be offered jabs for mpox, human papillomavirus (HPV), and hepatitis A and B. For decades, gonorrhoea, nicknamed 'the clap', along with syphilis, have been regarded as Victorian-era diseases largely eradicated due to modern diagnosis and medicine. Like gonorrhoea, however, the number of syphilis cases has also seen a resurgence in Britain. In 2023, 9,513 cases were reported, a more than 9% increase on the previous year and the highest number since 1948, according to UKHSA statistics. – AFP
Eyewitness News
7 days ago
- Health
- Eyewitness News
England to launch 'world first' gonorrhoea vaccination programme
LONDON - Health authorities in England on Wednesday announced the rollout of a world-first vaccine programme for gonorrhoea, amid record levels of the sexually transmitted disease. Gonorrhoea cases in England in 2023 topped 85,000, the highest number since records began in 1918, with doctors warning of rising levels of antibiotic resistance. Richard Angell, chief executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust, the UK's leading HIV and sexual health charity, hailed the initiative as a "game changer". "This alone could cut 40% of new gonorrhoea cases," he said. State-funded National Health Service (NHS) chief Amanda Doyle said it would be the world's "first" routine vaccination programme for the disease. The NHS director of primary and community care described it as a "huge step forward for sexual health", adding that it would also help "reduce the rising rates of antibiotic-resistant strains of the bacteria". The programme deploys an existing jab normally used to protect children against the meningococcal B disease, a serious bacterial infection that can cause meningitis and sepsis. Known as 4CMenB, it is part of the routine childhood vaccination programme given to babies at eight weeks, 16 weeks and one year. Under the new programme, the jabs will be offered to those considered most at risk -- gay and bisexual men with a recent history of multiple sexual partners or a bacterial sexually transmitted infection. "This vaccination programme is a hugely welcome intervention at a time when we're seeing very concerning levels of gonorrhoea, including antibiotic-resistant gonorrhoea," said NHS consultant epidemiologist Sema Mandal. "In 2023, we saw gonorrhoea diagnoses reach their highest since records began in 1918," added the deputy director of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). During appointments, patients will also be offered jabs for mpox, human papillomavirus (HPV), and hepatitis A and B. For decades, Gonorrhoea, nicknamed "the clap", along with syphilis, have been regarded as Victorian-era diseases largely eradicated due to modern diagnosis and medicine. Like gonorrhoea, however, the number of syphilis cases has also seen a resurgence. In 2023, 9,513 cases were reported, a more than 9% increase on the previous year and the highest number since 1948, according to UKHSA statistics.
Euronews
22-05-2025
- Health
- Euronews
Why the UK is offering vaccines for gonorrhoea – and the EU isn't
In a world first, the United Kingdom is rolling out a vaccine to prevent gonorrhoea – but it is not likely to reach patients in mainland Europe anytime soon. The jab will be offered through the UK's National Health Service to people in England at high risk of contracting gonorrhoea, after a vaccine advisory committee concluded in 2023 that it could help reduce the country's surge of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). In studies, the vaccine was between 32.7 per cent and 42 per cent effective against gonorrhoea, the advisory group found. That means the jab could help reduce, but not completely eliminate, the risk of infection. The vaccine, known as 4CMenB and sold by GSK as Bexsero, was not originally created with gonorrhoea in mind. It's been authorised for more than a decade in both the UK and the European Union to prevent meningococcal disease, which causes meningitis and bloodstream infections. The UK has recommended that babies receive the vaccine since 2015, with Ireland, Italy, Portugal, France, and Germany later following suit. Uptake has been spotty elsewhere in the EU. The bacteria that cause meningococcal disease and gonorrhoea are closely genetically related. Real-world data from New Zealand and elsewhere indicate that the 4CMenB jab could be particularly effective against gonorrhoea, though a randomised trial in France concluded that it was not effective. The vaccine hasn't been approved to prevent gonorrhoea in the UK, meaning the NHS programme will offer it for off-label use. Beginning in August, gay and bisexual men who have a recent STI or history of multiple sexual partners will be eligible for immunisation, in the hopes of slowing the bacteria's spread. England saw 85,000 new gonorrhoea cases in 2023, the highest level since records began in 1918, the NHS said. The vaccine 'has the potential to help us to turn that around,' Matt Phillips, president of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, said in a statement. But other Europeans won't have access to the jab. The EU's scientific advisory group is not considering whether it should be authorised to prevent gonorrhoea, and a GSK spokesperson told Euronews Health that the drugmaker is not in talks with regulators to change that. Meanwhile, health authorities in France and Italy told Euronews Health that the jab is not on their agendas, and a German representative pointed to a review that found mixed results on the efficacy of the vaccine to prevent gonorrhoea. The Norwegian public health agency noted that the vaccine offers 'some protection' against gonorrhoea, but it stopped short of endorsing the jab. Gonorrhoea is one of the most common STIs, with nearly 97,000 confirmed cases in 28 European countries in 2023 – up 31 per cent from the year before, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Cases have been rising among all age groups and among both women and men, with men who have sex with men accounting for 58 per cent of cases in 2023. Gonorrhoea can cause burning during urination, discharge from the genitals, and pain in the lower abdomen or testicles. It can lead to serious health issues if left untreated, such as pelvic inflammatory disease in women. Symptoms typically appear two weeks after infection, but many people don't have symptoms and can unknowingly spread gonorrhoea to their sexual partners. Gonorrhoea can be treated with antibiotics, though the surge of cases in recent years raises the risk that people will be infected with drug-resistant strains that are harder to treat. That's one problem the UK is hoping to address with the new vaccination programme, according to Dr Sema Mandal, deputy director of the UK Health Security Agency. 'This vaccination programme is a hugely welcome intervention at a time when we're seeing very concerning levels of gonorrhoea, including antibiotic resistant gonorrhoea,' Mandal said in a statement. A startup in France is leveraging artificial intelligence-backed physics principles in the hope of speeding up the process of making new drugs. Currently, developing a new medicine takes a company 10 to 15 years on average, with research conducted in a lab environment – and a lot of trial and error before they enter multiple stages of human clinical trials. It's also an expensive process, with only 10 to 20 per cent of experimental drugs in clinical trials eventually being approved. Those are problems the France-based Aqemia is trying to solve. The company, founded in 2019 by quantum physics researcher Maximilien Levesque and Emmanuelle Martiano, a former consultant for Boston Consulting Group, aims to use artificial intelligence (AI) to more efficiently create new molecules for drugs that treat cancers of the head, neck, and chest, such as lung cancer. It wants to "develop medicine faster in a frugal and accurate way," Dr Véronique Birault, Aqemia's vice president of translational sciences, told Euronews Health at the company's new London hub, which opened in January. To do so, Aqemia is using both AI and fundamental physics, which Levesque worked on during his academic career. Many healthcare companies are turning to AI tools in the drug discovery process, but they usually need to be trained on a large corpus of data – which doesn't always exist for these new molecules, according to Levesque. For example, "there aren't billions and billions and billions of drugs for chest cancer" that the AI models could be trained on, Levesque told Euronews Health. Instead of feeding their AI model with raw data, the team feeds it the rules of physics at the level of atoms and molecules tied to specific diseases. That includes a mathematical equation that Levesque solved, which the team says can be leveraged to identify "better molecules" that are "more effective". "It's as if, rather than swallowing lists of numbers, you had a maths teacher teaching you how to count," Levesque added. Aqemia isn't the only company betting on AI for drug discovery. Worldwide, 10 major pharmaceutical companies have signed more than 130 deals for AI collaborations since 2021. AI models can quickly analyse datasets to uncover patterns, helping scientists predict which molecules are linked to certain diseases and identifying promising drug candidates for new drugs or treatments. To some extent, they can also help forecast how people will respond to new drugs. For example, Google's AlphaFold system – which won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2024 – uses AI to predict a protein's 3D structure and how it will interact with other molecules. Aqemia has signed partnerships with pharmaceutical giants like Sanofi, Servier, and Johnson & Johnson to research potential new drugs, Levesque said. But he cautioned that even as the company works on speeding up the molecular development phase, it can't influence the clinical development stage, which takes an average of nine years. Some research indicates that may also be changing. A handful of AI-discovered molecules are in early stage trials, with cancer-related drugs making up about half of those in phase one and phase two studies. Aqemia could be part of the next wave. "Our internal programmes are progressing and we already have programmes showing efficacy and non-toxicity on mice with cancer," he said. The company hopes to launch clinical trials testing new molecules in late 2026 or early 2027.
Time of India
21-05-2025
- Health
- Time of India
England to launch 'world first' gonorrhoea vaccination programme
London: Health authorities in England on Wednesday announced the rollout of a world first vaccine programme for gonorrhoea, amid record levels of the sexually transmitted disease. Gonorrhoea cases in England in 2023 topped 85,000, the highest number since records began in 1918, with doctors warning of rising levels of antibiotic resistance. Richard Angell, chief executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust , the UK's leading HIV and sexual health charity, hailed the initiative as a "game changer". "This alone could cut 40 percent of new gonorrhoea cases," he said. State-funded National Health Service (NHS) chief Amanda Doyle said it would be the world's "first" routine vaccination programme for the disease. The NHS director of primary and community care described it as a "huge step forward for sexual health", adding that it would also help "reduce the rising rates of antibiotic resistance strains of the bacteria". The programme deploys an existing jab normally used to protect children against the meningococcal B disease, a serious bacterial infection that can cause meningitis and sepsis. Known as 4CMenB, it is part of the routine childhood vaccination programme given to babies at eight weeks, 16 weeks and one year. Under the new programme, the jabs will be offered to those considered most at risk -- gay and bisexual men with a recent history of multiple sexual partners or a bacterial sexually transmitted infection. "This vaccination programme is a hugely welcome intervention at a time when we're seeing very concerning levels of gonorrhoea, including antibiotic resistant gonorrhoea," said NHS consultant epidemiologist Sema Mandal. "In 2023 we saw gonorrhoea diagnoses reach their highest since records began in 1918," added the deputy director of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). During appointments, patients will also be offered jabs for mpox, human papillomavirus (HPV), and hepatitis A and B. For decades, Gonorrhoea, nicknamed "the clap", along with syphilis, have been regarded as Victorian-era diseases largely eradicated due to modern diagnosis and medicine. Like gonorrhoea, however, the number of syphilis cases has also seen a resurgence. In 2023, 9,513 cases were reported, a more than nine percent increase on the previous year and the highest number since 1948, according to UKHSA statistics.
Metro
21-05-2025
- Health
- Metro
Everything we know so far about the new world-first gonorrhoea vaccine
A world-first vaccine for gonorrhoea is being rolled out in England after the number of cases hit record highs. The number of people being diagnosed with the sexually transmitted infection (STI) reached more than 85,000 in 2023, which is the highest since records began in 1918. Described as a 'landmark moment for sexual health', the rollout comes as some strains of the STI are becoming resistant to antibiotics. Gonorrhoea is the second most common bacterial STI in the UK – with chlamydia in the top spot – but many people with the infection do not show any symptoms. Richard Angell, chief executive of Terrence Higgins Trust, described the jab as a 'game changer', adding that 'this alone could cut 40% of new gonorrhoea cases'. Dr Amanda Doyle, national director for primary care and community services at NHS England, said: 'The launch of a world-first routine vaccination for gonorrhoea is a huge step forward for sexual health and will be crucial in protecting individuals, helping to prevent the spread of infection and reduce the rising rates of antibiotic resistance strains of the bacteria. 'NHS teams across the country are now working hard to plan the rollout and ensure we hit the ground running, while the routine mpox vaccination programme builds on the vital progress the NHS has made in recent months in reaching as many eligible people as possible.' Here's everything we know so far about the vaccine rollout. The vaccine is an existing jab, known as 4CMenB, that is currently used to protect people against the meningococcal B disease, a serious bacterial infection that can cause meningitis and sepsis. It is used in the routine childhood programme and given to babies at eight weeks, 16 weeks and one year. The jab contains proteins from neisseria meningitidis – the bacteria that causes meningococcal disease – which is closely genetically related with neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacteria that causes gonorrhoea. Studies suggest the 4CMenB vaccine has between 32.7 to 42% effectiveness against gonorrhoea, and would not eliminate the risk of infection completely. However, previous gonorrhoea infection is thought to offer little protection against future infections, meaning the vaccine would still be beneficial. Eligible patients will be identified and contacted in the coming weeks, with the jab offered through local sexual health services from August 1. While at the appointment, patients will also be offered jabs for mpox, human papillomavirus (HPV), and hepatitis A and B. Gay and bisexual men with a recent history of multiple sexual partners or a bacterial STI will be eligible under the new programme. According to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), gonorrhoea disproportionately impacts specific communities, such as deprived areas, people of black Caribbean ethnicity, and gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. Diagnoses are highest among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, the JCVI said. UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) data shows there was a 9.4% increase in gonorrhoea diagnoses among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men in 2023, with cases rising from 37,095 to 40,586. Symptoms can include green or yellow discharge from the vagina or penis, pain when urinating and pain and discomfort in the rectum. For women, symptoms can include lower abdominal pain or bleeding between periods, and men can also experience sore testicles. However, many people do not have symptoms. Gonorrhoea is spread through vaginal fluid and semen, and can pass from person to person by having unprotected sex. People who suspect they may have gonorrhoea but aren't showing symptoms can order a self-test kit from sexual health clinics and some pharmacies. Cases of gonorrhoea that are resistant to the antibiotic ceftriaxone – usually the first line of treatment – are on the rise in England. This means the bacteria that causes the STI has developed the ability to survive and multiply even when exposed to the antibiotic. Some cases are also classed as 'extensively drug resistant' – or XDR – meaning the infection did not respond to ceftriaxone or the second line of treatment. More Trending In March, UKHSA revealed there were 17 cases of ceftriaxone-resistant gonorrhoea between January 2024 and March 2025. In the same period there were nine XDR cases reported, compared to five cases between 2022 and 2023. Dr Sema Mandal, consultant epidemiologist and deputy director at UKHSA, said: 'This vaccination programme is a hugely welcome intervention at a time when we're seeing very concerning levels of gonorrhoea, including antibiotic resistant gonorrhoea. 'Not only will this roll-out provide much needed protection to those that need it most, but it will make the UK the first country in the world to offer this protection and a world leader in protecting people against gonorrhoea.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Urgent recall issued for popular ice cream brand over plastic contamination fears MORE: The dangerous new social media trend that could leave children needing a stoma MORE: TV doctor wages war against deadly 'fake food' saying milkshake tax is nowhere near enough
