Eligible patients, which includes gay and bisexual men who have a recent history of multiple sexual partners or a sexually transmitted infection (STI), will start to be offered the vaccine through local authority-commissioned sexual health services from early August.
It comes after the government accepted the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s (JCVI) advice for an NHS roll out of the vaccine amid a record high 85,000 gonorrhoea diagnoses in England in 2023 – 3 times higher than in 2012.
People who receive the jab – an existing vaccine for meningococcal B disease, 4CMenB – could be protected from gonorrhoea by up to 40% and help tackle the increasing levels of antibiotic resistant strains of the disease, according to UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) research. UKHSA is supporting NHS England with the programme’s rollout…
