e providers to determine how often they should be tested for gonorrhea. Patients who have symptoms of gonorrhea or suspect they may have been exposed to gonorrhea should be tested.
The standard diagnostic test for gonorrhea is a culture swab. For females, the healthcare provider may swab the discharge from the cervix. For males, the healthcare provider inserts a thin swab into the tip of the penis to retrieve a sample of fluid from the urethra. In some cases, the healthcare provider may swab the anus. The sample is then rubbed on a petri dish. If the patient has gonorrhea, Neisseria gonorrhoeae will grow on the petri dish.
A urine analysis may also be performed. A sample of the patient's urine is analyzed in a laboratory for the presence of the disease-causing bacteria.
Treatment: Gonorrhea is curable. Patients typically take antibiotics, such as ciprofloxacin (Cipro® or Cipro XR®), ofloxacin (Floxin®), and levofloxacin (Levaquin®).
Babies with gonorrhea also receive antibiotics. In addition, medication, such as silver nitrate, is usually applied to the baby's eyes immediately after birth. This has been shown to help prevent the infection from spreading into the eyes.
Even if symptoms go away, medications should not be stopped early because the bacteria may still be present in the body. If the medication is stopped too early, the remaining bacteria in the body may mutate and become resistant to treatment. Once the bacterium is resistant to a medication, the antibiotic is no longer effective.
Overview: The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a virus that progresses to AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome). HIV primarily attacks the immune defense system, making the patient extremely vulnerable to opportunistic infections. Opportunistic infections are illnesses that occur in individuals who have weakened immune systems.
HIV primarily infects and destroys immune cells called CD4 T-cells. Healthy individuals have a CD4 cell count between 600 and 1,200 cells per microliter of blood. HIV patients who are not receiving treatment have less than 600 CD4 cells per microliter of blood. AIDS patients, who have CD4 cell counts that are lower than 200, have the greatest risk of developing opportunistic infections that may be fatal.
HIV is transmitted from person to person via bodily fluids including blood, semen, vaginal secretions, and breast milk. Therefore, it can be transmitted through sexual contact with an infected person, by sharing needles/syringes with someone who is infected, through breastfeeding, during vaginal birth or, less commonly (and rare in countries where blood is screened for HIV antibodies), through transfusions with infected blood.
Symptoms: Many patients experience no symptoms when they first become infected with HIV. After one or two months, an estimated 80-90% of HIV patients develop flu-like symptoms including headache, fever, fatigue, and enlarged lymph nodes. These symptoms usually disappear after one week to one month and are often mistaken for another viral infection, such as the flu. Despite having minimal or no symptoms during this stage, individuals are very infectious because the virus is present in large quantities in bodily fluids.
After the initial infection with HIV, the next stage is called clinical latency. Although patients experience few or no symptoms during the clinical latency stage, the infection may still be passed to others. Once infected with HIV, the clinical latency stage may last 10 or more years in adults or up to two years in children who are born with HIV infection. The length of this asymptomatic period varies in individuals. Some people may start to experience more serious symptoms within a few months, while others may be symptom-free for several years. The virus can also hide inside infected cells and lay dormant. Patients can still transmit the virus to others when the virus is dormant.
As the immune system continues to weaken many symptoms appear, including inflamed lymph nodes (swollen glands) that may be enlarged for longer than three months. Other symptoms often ex