Gonorrhea is a common problem, accounting for about 82 million cases worldwide. The burden of gonorrhea is disproportionally higher among men who have sex with men (MSM), sex workers, transgender persons, persons living with HIV, and certain ethnic minority populations. Unfortunately, no vaccines are currently available to prevent gonorrhea.
Neisseria gonorrhoeae is closely related to Neisseria meningitidis, for which vaccines are available. Some observational data support the use of meningococcal vaccines to prevent gonorrhea. For that reason, both Spain and the United Kingdom recommend the meningococcal vaccine for the prevention of gonorrhea among high-risk adults 18 to 65 years of age.
To determine whether the four-component meningococcal serogroup B vaccine (4CmenB) was effective at preventing gonorrhea, researchers in Australia performed a prospective, placebo-controlled trial of 587 high-risk adults (Seib KL, Donovan B, Jin F, et al. Meningococcal B vaccine to prevent Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection. N Engl J Med 2026;395:349-361). They found that the incidence of gonorrhea was 48.1 events per hundred person-years in the vaccine group and 47.8 events in the placebo group, an insignificant difference. The authors concluded, “4CmenB did not result in a lower incidence of N. gonorrhoeae infection than placebo among MSM who were at high risk for gonorrhea.”
Gonorrhea is a common problem, accounting for about 82 million cases worldwide. The burden of gonorrhea is disproportionally higher among men who have sex with men (MSM), sex workers, transgender persons, persons living with HIV, and certain ethnic minority populations. Unfortunately, no vaccines are currently available to prevent gonorrhea.
Neisseria gonorrhoeae is closely related to Neisseria meningitidis, for which vaccines are available. Some observational data support the use of meningococcal vaccines to prevent gonorrhea. For that reason, both Spain and the United Kingdom recommend the meningococcal vaccine for the prevention of gonorrhea among high-risk adults 18 to 65 years of age.
To determine whether the four-component meningococcal serogroup B vaccine (4CmenB) was effective at preventing gonorrhea, researchers in Australia performed a prospective, placebo-controlled trial of 587 high-risk adults (Seib KL, Donovan B, Jin F, et al. Meningococcal B vaccine to prevent Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection. N Engl J Med 2026;395:349-361). They found that the incidence of gonorrhea was 48.1 events per hundred person-years in the vaccine group and 47.8 events in the placebo group, an insignificant difference. The authors concluded, “4CmenB did not result in a lower incidence of N. gonorrhoeae infection than placebo among MSM who were at high risk for gonorrhea.”