Nessierrae Gonnorhae of Neisseriae Infection
Nessierrae Gonnorhae
There are 2 million cases a year of gonorrhoea in the US. In heterosexual men, the most commonly infected site is the anterior urethra, producing symptoms in 90% of cases. In homosexual men, rectal and pharyngeal infections are common. The latter are usually asymptomatic. Asymptomatic infections, although they are in the minority, represent an important reservoir of the disease: because they are not usually treated and therefore the infection may last for months. In women, the most commonly infected site is the endocervix; the urethra, the rectum, the periurethral glands, and Bartholin’s glands are also sites of infection. Perhaps as many as 50% of women have insufficient symptoms to seek treatment.
The most common complication is ascending infection of the fallopian tubes. Acute PID occurs in 15 to 20% of infected women, usually within a week of the onset of the first menses following infection. Acute gonococcal PID frequently necessitates hospitalisation and scarring of the oviducts, resulting in infertility and ectopic pregancies. The scarred fallopian tubes may become superinfected with a number of bacterial specieis leading to chronic PID, which often require surgical treatment.
In 1 to 3% of infected men or women, the gonococcus invade the blood stream, leading to disseminated gonococcal infection. Patients may present with either of two syndromes; polyarthralgias, tenosynovitis, and dermatitis or purulent arthritis. Very rarely, additional complications such as perihepatic abscess, endocarditis, or meningitis may occur. It is not unusual for an individual to acquire gonorrhoea repeatedly, even from the same consort.
In acute gonoccocal disease, stained smears of fresh exudate will often reveal the presence of intracellular gram-negative diplococci. This finding, together with a convincing clinical history may permit the physician to make the provisional diagnosis of acute gonorrhoea and institute antibiotic therapy. Wherever possible, the exudate should be cultured for gonococci before treatment. The diagnosis is established by the recovery of typical gram-negative oxidase-positive diplococci that ferment glucose but not maltose, sucrose or lactose. Rectal cultures are sometimes positive when urethral and cervical cultures are negative. Because gonococci are not hardy, specimens should be cultured immediately or placed in special transport media. Penicillin is the drug of choice but resistance is being increasingly encountered. Tetracycline may be used instead with the added bonus that it is effective against chlamydia.