gonorrhea

One kind of an infectious sexually transmitted infection mostly on male is Gonorrhea. About 356,000 cases in United States are reported every year and still the number is increasing.

This infection develops an acute discharge of pus from the urethra scant at the start and later becomes thicker and heavier which causes frequent urination with pain. Incubation period is two to seven days depending upon the degree of infection. Roadside Ad for Condoms by Frank Kovalchek (Alaskan Dude)

The infection directly affects the prostrate gland of the male which causes obstruction in the passage of urine. On females, the infection occurs in the urethra, the vagina or cervix. These causes some discharge and irritation of the vaginal mucous membranes and no early symptoms appear.

Gonorrhea can be diagnosed by either examination of discharge from the penis and vagina if there are presence of such bacteria or a urine test, which is a non-invasive method to check on people without exhibiting some symptoms. Non-treatment on males of the disease will subside but infections will scatter to the testicles that will cause sterility.

On the other hand, symptoms on women will subside if untreated but the infection spreads out from cervix into the uterus and damages the fallopian tubes that will cause pelvic inflammation and sterility. Some severe pain may occur.

Severe cases in both sexes may lead to bacteria entering the bloodstream that will result to arthritis, heart inflammation or other diseases. On pregnant women, the bacteria will affect infants by causing the child a serious eye infection.

In the 1990s, the incidence of gonorrhea has risen due to an increase of antibiotic-resistant strains of the bacteria causing less effects on the disease of the commonly used antibiotics. Although there are still antibiotics like ceftriaxone, cefixime, ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin still effective and are administered in single dose.

In some countries, gonorrhea has become an epidemic and almost reaching high proportions among adolescents and young adults. What they did is to put up clinics where young victims can get treatment and extra care. The difficult tasks, however, in controlling gonorrhea is identifying the all recent contacts of an infected person to prevent further the spread of the disease.

Although there are large billboards informing the public on gonorrhea, only few comes up front and admit they have this disease. The safest method may be for prevention of gonorrhea is for men to use protectors and for their partners to make sure they cover it.