Gonorrhea
Gonorrhea is among the most common sexually-transmitted diseases in the world and is caused by Gram-negative bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
Infection with gonorrhea increases the risk of passing on or becoming infected with HIV. This is likely due to weakening of the mucosal surface secondary to the gonorrhoea infection. Gonorrhea might also increase the amount of HIV present in semen and other genital secretions. Note, however, that this effect is by no means limited to gonorrhea and there is increased risk of HIV transmission with co-infection of most sexually-transmitted infections.
The first place this bacterium infects is usually the columnar epithelium of the urethra and endocervix. Non-genital sites in which it thrives are in the rectum, the oropharynx and the conjunctivae of the eyes. The vulva and vagina in women are usually spared because they are lined by stratified epithelial cells. In women the cervix is the usual first site of infection.
Gonorrhea spreads during sexual intercourse, whereby the infective partner does not need to be human. Infected women also can pass gonorrhoea to their newborn infants during delivery, causing eye infections in their babies. Gonorrhea among females can also be transmitted from one individual to another via contact to surfaces that may still be damp from prior contact.
The mainstay of treatment is the appropriate use of antibiotics. While penicillin was the most common antibiotic used to treat gonorrhoea up until the 1970s, an increase in antibiotic resistance has led to a decline in its use. Recommendations for first choice treatment of gonorrhoea must therefore depend on local information on resistance patterns and it is not possible to make treatment recommendations that are applicable to all parts of the world.
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Gonorrhea
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