Three tourists have been confirmed as the first global cases of 'super gonorrhoea'.

It comes after unprotected sex in south-east Asia, according to reports.

A trio have failed to respond to typical treatment for gonorrhoea.

These three include a British man who had a regular partner back home.

Public Health England (PHE) confirmed he had been infected.

neisseria gonorrhoeae, cause of gonorrhoea

They later revealed he had been successfully treated, reports the Mirror.

Two more tourists, both from Australia, picked up the infection, according to a European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) report.

The strain is “highly resistant” to the antibiotic azithromycin, meaning medics are relying on a second drug, ceftriaxone, to treat it.

But there are no other effective drugs to tackle it, raising the prospect of it becoming untreatable if it builds further resistance.

PHE urged people to use condoms with new or casual partners to cut the risk of catching the disease.

If untreated, gonorrhoea can result in severe complications and lead to infertility or septicaemia in rare cases.

Cases have been found in heterosexual men and women, and men who sleep with men (MSMs), PHE said.

The British Association for Sexual Health and HIV issued an alert to clinicians urging them to follow up cases of high-level drug-resistant gonorrhoea and trace their sexual partners.

Its president, Dr Elizabeth Carlin, told the BBC: “The spread of high-level azithromycin-resistant gonorrhoea is a huge concern and it is essential that every effort is made to contain further spread.

“Failure to respond appropriately will jeopardise our ability to treat gonorrhoea effectively and will lead to poorer health outcomes for individuals and society as a whole.”

There were almost 35,000 cases of gonorrhoea reported in England in 2014 and it is the second most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection in the UK after chlamydia, with the majority of cases affecting people under the age of 25.

Infected patients may experience discharge or pain while urinating, but around 10 per cent of men and almost half of women do not suffer any symptoms.

Concerns have been growing over “untreatable” strains of gonorrhoea, and in 2012, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control warned that drug-resistant forms of the STI were spreading across Europe.