The Bacterium Neisseria Gonorrhoeae - Essay Example

Gonorrhea
Introduction:
According to the estimates recorded in MedicineNet number of women currently infected with this disease exceeds one million, of which, between 25 percent and 40 percent also have another type of sexually transmitted infection (STI) caused by chlamydia.

Regions of infection:
The most suitable place for this bacterium to live in is the vagina and cervix which is essentially the terminal point of the uterus protruding into the vagina. Neisseria gonorrhea also survives in the urethra and rectum. Apart from these areas, Neisseria gonorrhea can also be found at the back of the throat which is the point of contact in oral sex.

Symptoms:
The disease shows no symptoms in the early stages in 50 percent of the cases. With the passage of time, the patient experiences frequent urination, swelling, burning, and redness of the genitals, discharge of a yellowish mucus from the vagina, and a lot of itching on and around the genitals. If adequate treatment is not taken in time, the swelling can aggravate to a dangerous extent and lead to severe and extremely painful pelvic infection. The infection causes the ovaries and Fallopian tubes to swell up. As a result of the inflammation of the Fallopian tubes, the patient acquires pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) which is essentially a very painful pelvis infection. PID is not very unusual to occur. This can be estimated from the fact that between 10 percent and 40 percent of the women experiencing gonorrhea acquire PID particularly when the infection occurs in the uterine cervix (MedicineNet, 2011, p. 2). Some of the most common symptoms of pelvic infection are abdominal pain, fever, pain while doing sex, and pelvic cramping. If a woman acquires a pelvic infection, she may experience difficulties in pregnancy.

Diagnosis:
Gonorrhea is tested by swabbing the infection area. The bacterium is identified through the material’s culturing from the swab. “The culture test involves placing a sample of the discharge onto a culture plate and incubating it up to 2 days to allow the bacteria to grow” (Cornforth, 2004).

Treatment:
Up to $6 million are spent for the treatment of gonorrhea in the US on annual basis (Jordan, 1980, p. 857). If the infection has sufficiently spread and due treatment is not taken in time, pus forms over the area of infection which can only be removed through surgery. Treatment of gonorrhea is not very complicated. The patient has been prescribed an antibiotic that may be taken in injection, liquid, or tablet form.