Doctors and charities call for ‘gonorrhoea vaccine’ roll-out

Andrew Rogers

BBC Newsbeat

Max shared his recent gonorrhoea diagnosis online and wants to end some of the stigma around the STI

BBC A man with dark brown hair and a beard sits on a sofa smiling at the camera. He's wearing a checked beige shirt over a white vest and has tattoos — Max shared his recent gonorrhoea diagnosis online and wants to end some of the stigma around the STI

Max was in the shower when he got a call few would want.

“My phone is connected to a speaker in the shower. That goes off, and I’m like: ‘Oh no’,” he says.

He was told he’d tested positive for gonorrhoea.

His was one of more than 85,000 cases in England last year – the highest level ever recorded.

Numbers are similarly high across the rest of the UK and have more than doubled over the last decade. Catching gonorrhoea once doesn’t stop you from getting it again.

“I went from having no STIs in my life, to having three or four in the space of three months. It was ridiculous,” Max tells BBC Newsbeat.

Gonorrhoea is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections in the UK.

Many, like Max, show no symptoms but it can cause pain in the joints and genitals, coloured discharge and problems getting pregnant. Using a condom during sex is usually said to be the best way of reducing the risk of catching it, but doesn’t eliminate it entirely.

It can be treated with a single injection of antibiotics, although a small number of treatment-resitant cases have been found in the UK.

‘Let’s get it done’

In November 2023, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommended a targeted roll-out of the MenB vaccine.

Primarily designed to tackle Meningitis B in children, the JCVI found the treatment was roughly 40% effective at preventing people from contracting and spreading gonorrhoea.

The body, which considers whether different immunisations should be offered on the NHS, said it would be cost-effective if given to people who are most at risk of catching gonorrhoea.

That includes gay and bisexual men and people who have had an STI in the past.

The JCVI said the money saved from fewer appointments and antibiotic treatments would be greater than the cost of the vaccines.

Prof Matt Phillips, president of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH), tells BBC Newsbeat it’s “pushing for this to happen as soon as possible”.

“If we don’t deal with it now, we’re going to see more people with serious types of gonorrhoea and more cases of antibiotic resistance,” he says.

“The science says we should do this, the JCVI says we should do this. Let’s get it done.”

Other charities working in sexual health tell BBC Newsbeat they agree, including the Terrence Higgins Trust which says “it’s time to put money where it needs to be. The time is now”.

A spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care says “we want everyone to have good access to sexual health services and treatment.

“We’re currently considering the JCVI advice and we will update in due course.”

They also added: “Last month we announced a boost of almost £200m to the public health grant, which funds sexual health clinics across the country”.

‘There’s a lot of shame around it’

Max, who creates educational online content on sexual health and wellbeing aimed at gay and bisexual men, says he would “absolutely” take the vaccine if he was offered it.

He shared his own gonnorhoea diagnosis online and believes we should be more open about discussing STIs to reduce the stigma around them.

“There’s a lot of shame around it,” he says.

“People think it’s dirty. I felt like talking about it online not only normalised getting tested and having the treatment, but also took away the shame.

“Even if you’re doing everything right, you can still get an STI”.

The latest data on STIs shows under-25s, black men and gay and bisexual men are most likely to catch gonnorhoea.

Max says he’s often had to work harder to get information on sexual health which he didn’t get in school.

“I think as queer people we have to go out of our way to get the information,” he says.

“It’s not something we’re actively taught”.

‘I’ve gotten gonorrhoea repeatedly’

One of the organisations looking to change that is The Love Tank, based in London. It campaigns on sexual health and other areas of wellness for LGBT+ people, including drug abuse and mental health.

It told BBC Newsbeat it also supports the campaign to have the MenB vaccine offered on the NHS.

“Sexual health services are already massively underfunded and understaffed”, says project co-ordinator Phil Samba.

“I feel like we should all be talking about sexual health,” he says.

“It should be as normalised as going to the dentist”.

He also says he’s noticed more people he knows testing positive for gonorrhoea, and says he’s caught it himself “repeatedly”.

Phil works for The Love Tank in London which runs awareness campaigns on sexual health and wellbeing

A man with black hair smiles at the camera while sitting on a yellow chair. He's wearing a navy blue t-shirt with the words "The Love Tank" on it — Phil works for The Love Tank in London which runs awareness campaigns on sexual health and wellbeing

Phil and The Love Tank also campaign for a wider use of Doxy-PEP, where the antibiotic doxycycline is taken in advance of sex to prevent some sexually transmitted bacterial infections being caught.

Neither Doxy-PEP nor the MenB vaccine are currently offered for free on the NHS in sexual health clinics, but can be bought through online pharmacies.

Both Boots and Superdrug offer private vaccination on the High Street for £110 per dose.

Phil thinks it’s important, though, that MenB is available to anyone who needs it, and says funding for drugs like PrEP to prevent HIV, and vaccines for mpox – formerly referred to as monkeypox – have come too late.

“We have not learned from the past,” says Phil.

“We need to learn from mistakes and try to provide people with resources, vaccines and medications. Surely we should be taking care of people’s health”.