A group of women in a community in western Kenya were found to carry two new strains of two common sexually transmitted illnesses.

More than 400 women over the age of 15 have been given new mutation-positive diagnoses for gonorrhea and chlamydia.

Because the town of Busia is near the border and truck drivers stop there, the experts from the Kenya Medical Research Institute worry that the sickness may spread to Uganda, a neighboring country.

The risk of contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases is higher for this group of persons.

To determine the extent of the sickness and whether the novel mutations can be treated by conventional antibiotics, the researchers intend to undertake additional investigations.

They said the changes on the genetic makeup of the virus had not been seen before.