Gonorrhea: Treatment

Gonorrhea has become more difficult and expensive to treat since the 1970s, due to the increased resistance of gonorrhea to certain antibiotics. In fact, according to projections from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 30% of the strains of gonorrhea were resistant to routine antibiotics in 1994, and resistance has been increasing steadily. Furthermore, many patients have both gonorrhea and chlamydial infections. Therefore, two drug treatment regimens are common. Medications used to treat gonorrhea include ceftriaxone, cefixime, spectinomycin, ciprofloxacin, and ofloxacin. Ceftriaxone and doxycycline or azithromycin are often given simultaneously to treat possible co-existing chlamydia (in pregnant women, erythromycin should be substituted for the aforementioned anti-chlamydial agents).

An extremely important consideration is to make sure that all of the prescribed medication is taken. If a course of antibiotics is not completed, the medication will only kill those organisms that are susceptible to the antibiotic, allowing those that are resistant to the effects of that particular antibiotic to multiply and possibly cause a new infection that will be more difficult to treat. Patients should refrain from sexual intercourse until treatment is complete and return for follow-up testing. Any sexual partners during the time of infection, even if those partners do not show symptoms, should be notified and treated when any sexually transmitted disease is involved.

— Teresa G. Norris