toilet seats or other objects such as towels or clothing.
Symptoms: Most patients develop symptoms of gonorrhea one to 10 days after the bacterium enters the body. Some patients may be infected for months before symptoms develop. More than 50% of females with gonorrhea do not experience any symptoms.
Common symptoms of gonorrhea include thick or bloody discharge from the penis or vagina, pain or burning sensation during urination, frequent urination, and pain during sexual intercourse.
Anorectal gonorrhea may develop in males or females after anal intercourse with an infected person. In some cases, the infection may spread from the genitals to the anus. Anorectal gonorrhea may cause some discomfort in and discharge from the anal area, but many patients do not experience any symptoms.
Oral sex can cause pharyngeal gonorrhea. Symptoms of pharyngeal gonorrhea commonly include pain when swallowing and redness of the throat and tonsils.
If a patient touches an eye after touching bodily fluids that contain the bacteria, it may cause pinkeye (conjunctivitis). Symptoms may include reddening and inflammation of the eye(s).
Newborns with gonorrhea may develop permanent blindness and infection of the joints and blood.
Complications: In females, untreated gonorrhea may lead to pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). This is an infection of the fallopian tubes, uterus, and cervix. If left untreated, PID may cause permanent damage to the reproductive tract, which may lead to infertility. It may also lead to long-term pelvic pain.
Males with untreated gonorrhea may develop a condition called epididymitis. This condition is characterized by inflammation of the tubes near the testicles that carry semen. Symptoms may include fever, scrotal pain, and swelling.
In rare cases, Neisseria gonorrhoeae may enter the bloodstream and infect other parts of the body, such as the skin, joints, or internal organs. Symptoms may include fever, swelling, joint pain and stiffness, rash, and skin sores.
Diagnosis: Patients should talk to their healthcare 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 rec