Dr Susanne Hodgson, NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer, Clinical Research Fellow, and Principal Investigator explains: ‘Gonorrhoea is an urgent global threat as some strains are becoming resistant to the antibiotic treatments that we have available. The development of a vaccine against gonorrhoea is therefore an urgent global public health priority.
If we could better understand the human immune response to gonorrhoea, we could accelerate the development of a vaccine against gonorrhoea.’
The GC-CHIM in men has been established in North America for decades and to date has included more than 200 participants. In this model, healthy men are infected with gonorrhoea. After receiving the dose of bacteria, participants attend daily clinic visits, before being treated with antibiotics that cure gonorrhoea.
We would like to establish the GC-CHIM in the UK to study the immune response to gonococcal infection (having gonorrhoea) to help us design better gonococcal vaccines and test whether newly developed vaccines can prevent people from getting infected. However, we do not know if the GC-CHIM would be acceptable to UK men and whether enough men would volunteer to take part in a UK GC-CHIM study to support such a research program.
We would like men aged 18-35 years to complete an online survey to help us understand the acceptability of the GC-CHIM to UK men. We are interested in understanding individuals’ questions, reservations, or reasons why they might volunteer to participate in a UK GC-CHIM study.
To view the Participant Information Sheet or to take part in the survey, please click the link.