Rollout of world-first gonorrhoea vaccine programme begins under NHS
Ella Day | August 8, 2025 | News story | Medical Communications | 10 Year Health Plan, Genito-Urinary system, Infections and infestations, NHS, gonorrhoea, sexual health, sexually transmitted infections, vaccination
From 4 August, sexual health clinics in England have been able to offer a free vaccine – the 4CMenB vaccine – to patients at highest risk of infection with gonorrhoea. The programme intends to protect thousands from infection risk, and forms part of the UK government’s 10 Year Health Plan, specifically the shift from sickness to prevention.
Those deemed at the highest risk are gay and bisexual men with a recent history of both multiple sexual partners and a bacterial sexually transmitted infection in the last 12 months. Patients will also be offered vaccinations for mpox, hepatitis A and B, and HPV vaccinations, providing protection against an array of diseases.
With gonorrhoea levels at an all-time high, the programme is timely. In 2023, 85,000 cases of the disease were reported in England – three times higher than in 2012.
It is estimated that the programme will avert up to 100,000 cases of the disease, help tackle increasingly antibiotic-resistant strains of the disease and save the NHS over £7.9m over the next decade. The initiative contributes to the government’s increasing uptake of vaccinations as part of the 10 Year Health Plan, published in July 2025.
Amanda Doyle, NHS national director for primary care and community services at the NHS commented that the programme is “a real step forward for sexual health and I know health service staff, alongside local authority colleagues, have been working hard to hit the ground running”.
Ella Day
8/8/25
This article featured in: September 2025 – The Pharmafile Brief
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