THOUSANDS of people in Bradford could be carrying a new sexually transmitted ‘superbug’ which can leave women infertile.

Mycoplasma genitalium, known as MG, affects between 1% and 2% of the population, according to the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH).

But tests to diagnose it are not routinely available, and BASHH have described the spread of the disease as a “public health emergency waiting to happen."

MG has no symptoms and often mistaken for chlamydia.

But medicines for chlamydia are ineffective for MG, leading medical professionals to warn that the infection could become resistant to antibiotics and untreatable within a decade if steps are not taken to tackle it.

Data from Public Health England shows that 1,739 people in Bradford were diagnosed with chlamydia last year alone, accounting for just 0.3% of the adults in the area.

The organisation says that up to 3,000 women a year in the UK who have pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) caused by MG could become infertile.

Paddy Horner, of BASHH, 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.

"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.

"These new guidelines have been developed because we can’t afford to continue with the approach we have followed for the past 15 years, as this will undoubtedly lead to a public health emergency with the emergence of MG as a superbug."

Cllr Sarah Ferriby, Portfolio Holder for Healthy People and Place at Bradford Council, said: "The advice we would offer to the public in preventing or dealing with any type of Sexually Transmitted Infection would be; to get tested at your local sexual health clinic if you are worried about being infected, use condoms with all partners especially if entering a relationship with someone new and also to have regular sexually transmitted infection screening especially after a change of partner or unprotected sex."