Prevalence of gonorrhea among adult male with urethritis in Erbil City
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15218/zjms.2014.0018Keywords:
Gonorrhea, Urethritis, Antibiotic susceptibilityAbstract
Background and objective: Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted disease caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The bacteria can be passed from one person to another through vaginal, oral, or anal sex. It can also be passed from mother to her baby during birth. The symptoms in adult male include a burning sensation when they urinate and a yellowish-white discharge may ooze out of the urethra. Gonorrhea can spread to epididymis causing pain and swelling in the testicular area. This can create scar tissue that can lead to infertility. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of gonorrhea in adult male in Erbil Governorate and the susceptibility of isolated Neisseria to antibiotics.
Methods: Urethral discharge obtained from adult male aged between 19-49 years were examined for the presence of Neisseria gonorrhoeae using direct smear gram staining and cultural technique. The susceptibility of isolated bacteria to antibiotics was tested using disc diffusion method.
Results: This study showed that the incidence of gonorrhea among 312 adult male with urethritis in Erbil city was (8.97%) while (91.03%) of patients examined had nongonococcal urethritis. The higher percentage of infection with Neisseria gonorrhoeae (14%) occurred among age group (19-29) years and the lower (3.48%) in the age group (39-49) years. Among the 210 unmarried patients, 26 (12.38%) had gonorrhea and 184 (87.62%) had nongonococcal urethrits. All Neisseria gonorrhoeae were sensitive to ceftriaxone, spectinomycin and azithromycin. The isolates showed low sensitivity (21.42%) to penicillin.
Conclusion: It seems that gonorrhea is common among symptomatic adult male. The emergence of resistance to some antibiotics is worrying. Appropriate prevention strategies should be of highest priority of the policy makers.
Metrics
References
Newman LM, Moran JS, Workowoski KA. Update on the management of gonorrhea in adults in the United States. C. Infect. Dis 2007; 44: 84-101.
Gates W, Meheas A. Strategies for development of sexually transmitted diseases control program. In Holmes KK, Mardh PA, Sparling PF, eds. Sexually Transmitted Diseases. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 1990. P. 1023-30.
Centers for Disease Control. Penicillin producing Neisseria gonorrhoeae. MMWK 1976; 25-261.
Farki H, Kohmescher RN, Mckinney WP, Sparling PF. A community based outbreak of infection with penicillin resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae not producing penicillinase (chromosomally mediated resistance). N Engl J Med 1985; 313: 607-11.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sexually transmitted diseases treatment guidelines. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep; 1993. 42 (no. RR-14).
Tanaka M, Kamazawa J, Matsumoto T, Kobagashi I. High prevalence of Neisseria gonorrhoeae strains with reduced susceptibility to fluoroquinolones in Japan. Genitourin Med 1994; 70: 90-3.
Tapsall JW, Shultz TR, Philips EA. Characteristics of Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolated in Australia showing decreased sensitivity to quinolones antibiotics. Pathology 1992; 24:27-31.
Bogaerts J, Tello WM, Akingeneye J, Mukantabna V, Van Dyck E, Piot P. Effectiveness of norfloxacin and ofloxacin for treatment of gonorrhoeae and decreased of in vitro susceptibility to quinolones over time in Rwanda. Genitourin Med 1993:69: 196-200.
Knapp JS, Ohye R, Neal SW, Parekh MC, Higa H, Rice RJ. Emerging in vitro resistance to quinolones in penicillinase producing Neisseria gonorrhoeae strain in Hawaii. Antimicrobial agents chemotherapy 1994;38:2200-3
Vandepitte J, EL-Nageh MM, Tikhomirov E, Stelling J, Estrela A. Guidelines for antimicrobial surveillance; 1996. WHO Regional publications Eastern Mediterranean series 15. Alexandria, Egypt.
Al-Sweih NA, Khan S, Rotimi, VO. The prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection among men with urethritis in Kuwait. J Infect Pub Health 2011; 4: 175-9
Madani TA. Sexually transmitted infections in Saudi Arabia. BMC Infect Dis 2006; 6: 6-3.
Knapp JS, Zenilman JM, Biddle JW. Frequency and distribution in the United States of strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae with plasmid mediated resistant to tetracycline. J Infect Dis 1987; 155:819-22.
Dillon JA, Li H, Sealy J, Ruben M, Parabrakar P. Antimicrobial susceptibility of Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolated from the Caribbean Countries: Trinidad, Guyana, and St. Vincent. STDs 2001; 28 (9)508-14.
Furuya R, Tanaka M. Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections. Nippon Rinsho 2009; 67 (1): 129-35.
Fox KK, Knapp JS, Holmes KK, Hook EW, Judson FN, Thompson SE, et al. Antimicrobial resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae in the United States, 1988-1994: The emergence of decreased susceptibility to the fluoroquinolones. J Infect Dis 1997; 175: 1396-403.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sexually transmitted diseases treatment guidelines 2006. http:// www.cdc.gov/std/treatment.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2014 Isam Yousif Mansoor (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The copyright on any article published in Zanco J Med Sci is retained by the author(s) in agreement with the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial ShareAlike License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
