The chief medical officer of the UK has issued a warning that one of the oldest sexually transmittable diseases in the world is likely to eventually become untreatable. The BBC reported that Dame Sally Davies said that Gonorrhoea may become untreatable, and has written to pharmacies and GPs to make sure they prescribe the right drugs for it.

She became concerned about the disease after cases of ‘super-gonorrhoea’ emerged in Leeds previously this year.

Dame Davies wrote, “Gonorrhoea is at risk of becoming an untreatable disease due to the continuing emergence of antimicrobial resistance. It is therefore extremely important that suboptimal treatment does not occur”. She added that there are many patients who are also not getting the correct antibiotics required to clear the infection.

A study by Public Health England (PHE) disclosed that doctors have been still prescribing the antibiotic ciprofloxacin for the disease, though the antibiotic hasn’t been since 2005.

Study lead author Dr. Gwenda Hughes said that they were aware that gonorrhoea is resistant to numerous antibiotics and also develop resistance very rapidly to new antibiotics also. The author said that the issue was obviously that in case people will keep on prescribing the wrong antibiotics, the patient won’t get the effective treatment ever.

PHE also discovered 16 cases of the super strain that is resistant to the antibiotic called azithromycin, which is among the few antibiotics known for the disease treatment.