Hundreds of people in Southend could be carrying a new sexually transmitted superbug

The British Association of Sexual Health and HIV said mycoplasma genitalium, or MG, affects 1 per cent and 2 per cent of the population but has no symptoms and is often misdiagnosed as chlamydia, with treatment ineffective.

Public Health England said 673 people in Southend were diagnosed with chlamydia last year, just 0.4 per cent of people in the town, and it is thought many more are undiagnosed.

BASHH’s Paddy Horner said: “MG is treated with antibiotics, but as until recently there has been no commercially available test, it has often been misdiagnosed as chlamydia and treated as such.

"This is not curing the infection and is causing antimicrobial resistance in MG patients. If practices do not change and the tests are not used, MG has the potential to become a superbug within a decade, resistant to standard antibiotics.

"The greatest consequence of this is for the women who present with PID caused by MG, which would be very hard to treat, putting them at increased risk of infertility.”

The organisation is now recommending the introduction of an accurate test for MG and effective treatment.

The new guidelines come two months after a British man was reported to have the “world’s worst” case of super-gonorrhoea. Like MG, it also proved resistant to antibiotics.

MG is lower profile then gonorrhoea, but more widespread.