November 23, 2008 | | Comments 0

Gonorrhea History

Know More About Gonorrhea History

Any sexually active individual can be affected by the bacterium that causes gonorrhea. In the US, the most number of cases of infection reported involve sexually active teenagers, young adults and African Americans. Gonorrhea can be transmitted through sexual intercourse, oral sex or even touching the genital areas of an infected person. Familiarizing yourself with the gonorrhea history can help you understand the condition and protect yourself more effectively.

Neisseria gonorrhoeae is a bacterium that causes gonorrhea. What it does is infect the membranes lining organs in the genital area. Although reports indicate that there are approximately 360,000 cases of gonorrhea infections every year in the United States along, researchers calculate that the number of cases each year are actually nearer to 650,000. Gonorrhea is similar to chlamydia, in which symptoms do not always show up. This makes treating the condition all the more difficult. When symptoms do show up, they cause a burning sensation while urinating and vaginal or penile discharge. Untreated gonorrhea can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease in females. Newborns of mothers infected by gonorrhea are likely to have been infected during delivery. In this case, babies can get infections of the eyes.

Gonorrhea History

Gonorrhea History

Gonorrhea History

So where does gonorrhea come from? How did it all start? In the past, gonorrhea has been misunderstood and people did not really know much about it. However, it was recognized as some kind of sexually transmitted disease, and was being treated with the use of medications intended for other prevalent STDs such as syphilis and chlamydia. One of the usually types of treatment for such conditions has been injections of mercury. Sailors who were troubled by the burning sensation while urinating and other symptoms of the genitals were usually injected with mercury through the end of the penis.

The very first truly effective treatment for gonorrhea came about at the start of the 20th century. This treatment was the administration of penicillin, which is an antibiotic. Penicillin has been the standard drug in treating gonorrhea until strains of the bacteria increasingly became resistant in the 1970s. From that time on, other barrages of antibiotics were developed and found to be more effective types of treatment. They were generally very successful in curing the condition, that is if the patient took them exactly as prescribed.

Just lately, the Center for Disease Control considered gonorrhea has one of the super bugs that are resistant to most standard antibiotics. Today, gonorrhea is turning into a more challenging condition to treat due to drug-resistant strains. Fortunately, anyone who is infected but tested and diagnosed early will still have a higher chance of getting cured successfully.

It is vital to think about gonorrhea history in medical terms as well. Getting re-infected with gonorrhea is not rare and in fact happens a lot among those who have already been infected and cured of the infection in the past. In this case, re-infected individuals are considered to have a history of gonorrhea. It is not really the history of gonorrhea physicians are worried about in a patient, but the possible complications that an untreated infection may cause in the body.

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