In what seems hard to believe and have kept mouth open wide in shock, an 11-year-old girl has caught gonorrhea from a natural thermal pool in Italy, doctors have revealed.

She’s believed to have caught the infection, which is usually sexually transmitted, from water that was used by a person with gonorrhea.

The girl who is from Austria was bathing at the edge of the ‘Mirror of Venus’, a lake fed by volcanic hot springs on the island of Pantelleria, off the coast of Sicily.

Experts claimed that the temperature in the pool could approach body temperature, and in this case could provide a way for the bacteria to infect the young girl. Bathing in hot springs is a popular pastime in many British holiday hotspots such as Italy, Turkey, and Iceland.

Official NHS guidance states that gonorrhea cannot be caught by sharing water, but there are historical cases of it happening, experts say.

In the case, detailed in the Journal of Medical Case Reports, the Austrian girl was holidaying with her parents and seven-year-old sister in August 2020.

After swimming in the lake itself, the 11-year-old relaxed by soaking for an hour in a 20cm deep thermal pool at the lake’s edge with her father and other tourists.

Meanwhile, her sister and mother were bathing in a similar but separate pool also by the lakeside. Two days later the child began to feel a painful burning sensation.

She was given an over-the-counter anti-fungal cream for a week while the family continued their holiday. While this helped, it did not completely eradicate the symptoms so the family took the 11-year-old to their family GP when they returned to Austria two weeks later.

After inspecting the girl, the doctor took a swab which returned a positive for gonorrhea. All the family members were then tested for the sexually transmitted infection (STI) but these came back negative.

While the sexual transmission was considered, the girl insisted she had not had sex.

With the symptoms having started on the holiday, and with ‘no evidence of sexual contact, it was concluded that she must have been infected by the pool water.

The girl, upon learning she had an STI, was mortified and terrified of her classmates finding out. She was treated with an antibiotic injection in the hospital, followed by a course of antibiotic tablets.

While Professor Felicity Goodyear-Smith, author of the case report said while there had been slight delays between diagnosis and treatment due to the Covid pandemic, the girl has fully recovered.

With more Britons now going on holiday as Covid travel restrictions are eased, experts say people need to be aware of the dangers of using these pools.

The picturesque ‘Mirror of Venus’, also known as Special di Venere/Lago di Venere, is a tourist attraction famous for its hot pools on its shores. But it was also the place where an 11-year-old girl developed gonorrhea after sharing a pool with an infected stranger.

authors also note that young girls are particularly susceptible to this type of very unusual gonorrhea infection.

The bacteria that causes the gonorrhea infection, called Neisseria gonorrhoeae (graphic representation pictured) is commonly transmitted via sexual contact but a new case suggests it can also be transmitted via sharing water in certain conditions

This is because young girls’ genitals are less acidic than adult women’s, and therefore more vulnerable to gonorrhea bacteria, they explained.

Professor Goodyear-Smith said it was ‘almost certain’ that the girl had caught gonorrhea from the contaminated pool rather than sexual contact.

But they emphasized it was critical the circumstances surrounding all gonorrhea infections in children are fully investigated, to identify any possible sexual abuse.

The authors also noted, that while rare, this was not the first recorded instance of children catching gonorrhea in non-sexual ways. They cited cases where children had caught gonorrhea from a public toilet seat, and from sharing towels with infected family members.

Historically children had also caught gonorrhea from common baths in places like hospitals, the authors said.

Statistics show 78 million people worldwide contract gonorrhea, which can often go without symptoms for weeks each year.

Symptoms usually appear within two weeks of infection – but may remain hidden for several months.

In women, symptoms of gonorrhea may include:

*An unusual vaginal discharge, which may be thin or watery and green or yellow.

*Pain or burning when urinating
Pain or tenderness in the lower abdomen (this is less common)
Bleeding between periods, heavy periods, and bleeding after sex (this is less common)
In men, symptoms of gonorrhea may include:

An unusual discharge from the tip of the penis, which may be white, yellow, or green
pain or burning when urinating
Swelling (swelling) of the foreskin
Pain or tenderness in the testicles (this is rare)