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Prevention and medical treatment of gonorrhea
Basic preventive measures |
The use of condoms helps prevent the transmission of gonorrhea during anal or vaginal sex. Condoms or dental dams can also serve as a means of protection during oral sex. Wash one’s hands after using the toilet. If the mother is at risk, the newborn child immediately benefits from antibiotic treatment against gonorrhea at birth. This is a drop of rifamycin in each eye, and this antibiotic can be used to treat it if the mother is infected. In fact, 30 to 50% of children born to women suffering from untreated gonorrhea would contract a serious eye infection that could make him blind. |
Screening measures |
Regular screening helps prevent the infection from being passed on to new partners. Partner information : In the event of a positive result, it is important to notify anyone with whom you have had sex and who may have been exposed. She will need to be tested and treated immediately if infected. Gonorrhea can be detected, in both men and women, by urinalysis or culture of specimens taken from infected areas (in the throat, urethra, vagina or rectum using a cotton swab). |
Treatment
Gonorrhea is treated with antibiotics as a single dose orally or by intramuscular injection. Resistance has appeared for certain antibiotics which have become ineffective, such as penicillins or tetracyclines. Ceftriaxone 500 mg is currently used as a single intramuscular or intravenous injection. The doctor systematically associates it with a treatment against chlamidiae, for example azithromycin at a dose of 1 g in single dose, because the two infections are often associated.
The treatment is given immediately after the sample, even before awaiting the results in humans. The partner (s) must also be treated. The person treated must return for consultation after 7 days.
All people taking treatment for gonorrhea should also be screened for chlamydia infection. In pregnant women at risk of sexually transmitted infection (STI) or who have had an STI, just after giving birth, the newborn child is given rifamycin drops in the eyes to treat possible gonorrhea.