The NHS will start rolling out a "world-first" vaccination programme against gonorrhoea in England.
According to Sky News, earlier this year, NHS England announced that eligible patients would start to be offered the vaccine from early August amid a record number of gonorrhoea cases and increasingly antibiotic-resistant strains.
Now, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has said sexual health clinics will be able to offer a free vaccine against the sexually transmitted infection from today.
Ashley Dalton, minister for public health and prevention, said in a statement that the rollout "represents a major breakthrough in preventing an infection that has reached record levels."
Dalton said, "This government's world-first vaccination programme will help turn the tide on infections, as well as tackling head-on the growing threat of antibiotic resistance.
"I strongly encourage anyone who is eligible to come forward for vaccination, to protect not only yourselves but also your sexual partners," she added.
Jabs will be offered for free to those at highest risk from the bacteria, including gay and bisexual men who have a recent history of multiple sexual partners and a bacterial STI in the previous 12 months.
Gonorrhoea diagnoses reached 85,000 in 2023, the highest since records began in 1918 and three times more than in 2012.
