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Gonorrhoea - Background information
What is it?
- Uncomplicated gonorrhoea is caused by localized infection with the diplococcus bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae. It primarily affects the mucous membranes of the urethra, endocervix, rectum, pharynx, and conjunctiva.
- Disseminated gonorrhoea may present as septic arthritis or dermatitis. It is much less common than uncomplicated gonorrhoea, occurring in less than 1% of people.
- Gonorrhoea is almost always sexually transmitted in adults. It is transmitted by direct inoculation of secretions from one mucous membrane to another, through genital–genital, genital–anorectal, orogenital, or oro–anal contact. Infection of the eye most commonly results from autoinoculation.
[BASHH, 2005b; Handsfield and Sparling, 2005; Bignell, 2009]
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