Gonorrhea

Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted infection, also known as “the clap”.{{more}} It was common in the 60s and 70s, but due to public health education and the use of antibiotics and condoms (especially with the advent of HIV), the rates have been falling since the late 1980s. The bacteria which causes gonorrhea is very infectious, so most people who “catch” the disease do so after the first or second contact with the infected person. Women tend to “catch” it faster than men. Gonorrhea has been known since medieval times and, along with syphilis, has been the cause of great morbidity and mortality in human history. It has no known bounds or barriers, affecting rich and poor, black and white alike. In recent times, the disease has been found mainly in persons with multiple sexual partners, those who live in crowded places, like inner cities, along with the poor, uneducated, drug abusers and homosexuals.

If you remember chlamydia, then you will remember gonorrhea, because they can occur together; just that gonorrhea is more infective and produces more symptoms. Both are caused by a bacterium, hence it can be treated easily; however, gonorrhea has developed resistance to a lot of the antibiotics once used to treat it. So what are the symptoms of gonorrhea? These symptoms vary from men to women, and as with chlamydia, men tend to exhibit more symptoms and virtually all men will know that they have the disease, while only half of the women who have had the disease will have had symptoms. The symptoms include severe burning and pain on urination, a copious urethral discharge, usually white, yellow or bloody and the urge to urinate frequently. Women may have the same urinary symptoms as men, but they usually do not. Instead, they exhibit the symptoms of a pelvic inflammatory disease or PID. These include a vaginal discharge, lower abdominal pain, fever, pain on intercourse and some urinary symptoms. The vaginal discharge, like the men’s urethral discharge, can be white, yellow, green or brown and is usually associated with a mild fever and sometimes, severe lower abdominal pain.

In both men and women, the infection may spread to the blood stream and cause a blood infection called septicemia or disseminated gonococcemia. In this very dangerous type, the bacteria circulates in the blood stream and affects the joints, tendons, heart valves, brain and kidneys. The patients usually complain of fever, chills, rigors, joint swelling and pains, along with a skin rash. The heart valve involvement is suspected from the skin rash, but is only diagnosed by examination. The same is true of the meningitis, even though most patients with gonococcal meningitis may complain of headache and difficulty looking at light, along with the fever and other symptoms mentioned above. Women undiagnosed and untreated during their pregnancy can pass it on to their newborn as neonatal eye infection, which may cause blindness, even though the greatest cause of neonatal blindness from a sexually transmitted infection is chlamydia. Next week, we will look at the complications of untreated gonorrhea in men and women.

For comments or question contact:

Dr. Rohan Deshong

Tel: (784) 456-2785

email: deshong@vincysurf.com