Drug-resistant Gonorrhea Strain 'Worse Than AIDS,' Could Bring Quick Death, Doctor Says [VIDEO]

An antibiotic resistant strain of gonorrhea "might be a lot worse than AIDS," according to one doctor who expressed concern that the strain may have become a hard-to-combat superbug.

Alan Christianson, a doctor of naturopathic medicine in Phoenix, Ariz. told CNBC last week that there is growing concern about the sexually transmitted infection.

"This might be a lot worse than AIDS in the short run because the bacteria is more aggressive and will affect more people quickly," he said, adding that "getting gonorrhea from this strain might put someone into septic shock and death in a matter of days."

This is very dangerous," he said.

The strain was found to be resistant to antibiotics in 2011,

There have been no reported cases of gonorrhea treatment failure in the U.S., CNBC reported, correcting an earlier report that said a person was infected with antibiotic resistant gonorrhea in Hawaii and California.

The gonorrhea strain, HO41, was first discovered in a sex worker in Japan. No deaths have been reported from HO41, according to CNBC.

A December paper published on the emergence of the multidrug-resistant gonorrhea strain said, "an era of untreatable gonorrhea may be approaching, which represents an exceedingly serious public health problem."

Gonorrhea can be hard to detect because half of women and five percent of men infected show no symptoms. According to the CDC, gonorrhea infection rates were at historic lows until two years ago.

"That's what's kind of scary about this," William Smith, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, told CNBC. "We are at lows in terms of infections, but this strain is a very tricky bug and we don't have anything medically to fight it right now."