UK first with gonorrhea vaccine – FHM is awaiting

The world -unique vaccination program, which starts in August, will break the trend of increasing gonorrhea cases in the UK.

The initiative follows after the 2023’s top listing with 85,000 reported cases of gonorrhea in the UK, which is highest since the nation began to have statistics on the disease in 1918, according to the state healthcare system NHS.

The syringe is mainly offered to gay and bisexual men who have a current history of many sexual partners or of sexually transmitted diseases.

The vaccine, which is actually designed against the related bacterium meningococci, has been shown to have an efficiency of 30-40 percent against gonorrhea. NHS estimates that it is sufficient to prevent up to 100,000 gonorrhea cases and reduce health care costs by almost Åt £ £ £ £ £ £ åtta over the next ten years- provided the desired vaccination rate.

The Public Health Authority will follow The British vaccination program carefully, but there are no plans in Sweden to use the current vaccine. The efficiency is simply too low, says Tina Crafoord, chief physician and the one who leads the unit for vaccination programs at the Public Health Authority.

– That is what we would call a very low effect and it is difficult to see how you find it cost -effective. To me, the vaccine is not approved for gonorrhea, so you do not know how long it protects and how often you need to repeat the dose. But probably they (UK) feel that they have the need, says Tina Craaford.

Instead, FHM wants to wait for a vaccine that is specifically developed against gonorrhea.

– It is a vaccine that is under development right now. The belief we have is that there will be an approved vaccine within the next five years. And then it would be something we are looking at – what the recommendations would look like and if so would be placed in a vaccination program. Then we will prepare evidence to the government to decide on, says Tina Crafoord.

But if the vaccine in the UK turns out to be effective – can you change your mind then?

– Yes absolutely. We external spans throughout the vaccination area. This is one of the parts we follow. Should there be other studies that show much better results than has been shown so far, it is definitely something that we take into account.

Gonorrhea is one Sexually transmitted disease which can without treatment lead to serious complications and impaired fertility. Infected is usually treated with antibiotics, but there have been an alarm that the bacterium that causes the disease – gonococci – is becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics. However, according to Tina Crafoord, there is no sufficient evidence for it at present.

– When you look at Sweden and Europe, so far there are only a few cases where you see that gonorrhea has lower sensitivity to the antibiotic treatment used today. So it’s really too early to say if it’s a trend break, she says.

The number of reported cases Of gonorrhea in Sweden, more than doubled over the last ten -year period, from 1,676 cases 2015 to 4,365 cases 2024. FHM currently has no answer to what the increase is due to.

– We have studies and work in progress with other Nordic countries, to look at what the reasons are so that we can take action.