A vaccine used to protect patients against meningitis B proved effective at preventing gonorrhea, according to a study published Monday in The Lancet.
From 2004 to 2006, New Zealand launched a massive campaign to boost meningitis vaccinations in the country. To determine whether increases in meningitis vaccinations influenced gonorrhea rates, researchers assessed 14,000 patients at sexual health clinics aged 15 to 30 years through a retrospective controlled-case study.
Researchers found 12,487 patients had chlamydia, 1,241 patients had gonorrhea and 1,002 patients had both. Patients who received a meningitis B vaccine were about 30 percent less likely to have gonorrhea than those who did not.
"To our knowledge, ours is the first study to show an association between a vaccine and a reduction in the risk of gonorrhea," researchers wrote in the study.
More than 820,000 cases of gonorrhea occur annually in the U.S., according to the CDC. The World Health Organization last week warned that drug-resistant gonorrhea is becoming more difficult — and sometimes impossible — to treat.
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