Mouthwash may be able stop gonorrhoea from spreading, researchers believe.
Gonorrhoea is a bacteria that is spread sexually - but studies show people can carry the infection in their throats for months on end without suffering any symptoms.
Those infected could pass it to others through oral sex - and health officials say cases of the STI are rising and fast becoming untreatable.
Now, Australian researchers are exploring whether a mouthwash can kill the bacteria and stop the infection from being spread.
Professor Christopher Fairley, from Monash University, Melbourne, has been testing whether treating patients with mouthwash can kill the bacteria in their throats.
He recruited 58 male volunteers who all had detectable levels of gonorrhoea in their mouths at the beginning of the study.
Half were asked to gargle with saltwater for a minute.
The other half were given an antiseptic mouthwash from a supermarket instead.
Five minutes later, he swabbed their throats to see if the mouthwash had killed the gonorrhoea bacteria.
He found the levels of detectable bacteria fell among those using the mouthwash.
Professor Fairley said more research is needed to check how long this effect might last - and whether it could really halt the spread of gonorrhoea.
Next, he will recruit volunteers to take part in a three-month trial to see what impact gargling with mouthwash might have on the infection.
His study comes after the number of new cases of gonorrhoea, which is also known as ‘the clap’, have soared in recent years.
Between 2012 and 2015 gonorrhoea infections rose by 53 per cent, from 26,880 to 41,193, figure from Public Health England show.
And health officials have also warned of a new breed of ‘super-gonorrhoea’ – which is resistant to the usual antibiotics prescribed to treat it.
It was first spotted in Leeds in November 2014, and then spread to the West Midlands and London.
By April 2016, 34 people had been diagnosed with this 'super-gonorrhoea'.
Experts warned that if it becomes resistant to another, stronger antibiotic, there will be further drugs left to treat it.
