The intriguing possibility that gonorrhoea could be conquered via vaccination rather than condoms is being actively pursued, just as untreatable strains fuel a global rise in cases.

With Neisseria gonorrhoeae now resistant to five classes of antimicrobials, attention is turning to the possible repurposing of a meningococcal vaccine that has been shown to damp down transmission of the STI.

Epidemiologists in Cuba were the first to twig that mass inoculation against meningococcal B with a homegrown vaccine in the late 1980s had a spin-off benefit of near-halving gonorrhoea incidence across the nation.

Since then, a New Zealand study, published in 2017, found an immunisation drive with the outer membrane vesicle vaccine MeNZB resulted in 31% effectiveness against N. gonorrhoeae.