Gonorrhea
Gonorrhea is a recognizable condition meaning that a doctor must report the diagnosis of every gonorrhea patient to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance system. The reporting of gonorrhea diagnosis helps the health authorities to line up prevention and treatment strategies. Gonorrhea is luckily easy to cure but getting delayed treatment can also lead to serious, sometimes permanent complications. For instance, pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) develops in women when gonorrhea reaches the fallopian tubes or uterus and affects them. In some severe cases of people with delayed treatment suffer from infertility as a result of gonorrhea.
Some possible complications in males due to gonorrhea include the inflammation of the tube carrying the sperms which are medically known as epididymitis. As similar to female gonorrhea, male patients with severe or prolonged gonorrhea face infertility. Gonorrhea is one of the sexually transmitted infections (STIs) resulting due to a bacterium i.e., Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The common sexually transmitted infection (STI) tends to attack the moist and warm areas of the body including the eyes, throat, urethra (the tube that carries urine from the bladder), vagina, anus, cervix, uterus, and fallopian tubes. (1)
Gonorrhea can occur in people of any gender or age group, but it develops among young adults and teens between the ages of 15 and 24. The people who go without any treatment for gonorrhea can result in attaining long-term health concerns and in a few cases, infertility is the end. However, early diagnosis and proper treatment with antibiotics can help to cure the infection and aid in lowering any chances of experiencing health issues. As gonorrhea is contagious, it can spread through oral, vaginal, or anal sex with an infected person. Gonorrhea also affects females’ cervix and the other reproductive parts, including the fallopian tubes and the uterus.
Therefore, the best way to prevent gonorrhea or other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is to use a condom or other methods to create a barrier while engaging in sexual activity. Using a barrier method like wearing a condom can go a long way to reduce your risk of contracting or transmitting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) like gonorrhea. In addition, it is important to keep in mind that the use of barrier methods cannot always fully eliminate your chance of getting gonorrhea, especially if you are not using them properly. Although gonorrhea usually infects people when they engage in oral, vaginal, or anal sex. But infants of gonorrhea-infected mothers can also suffer from the disease during childbirth.
In the case of infants or babies with gonorrhea, the symptoms usually appear in the eyes area. The preventive ways to ensure safety from gonorrhea include abstaining from sex with numerous partners, using a condom every single time, and engaging in a mutually monogamous relationship. According to some reports, evidence also indicates that kissing with tongue or French kissing might be the potential way of the transmission of oral gonorrhea. However, there is a need for more research on the potential chances of oral gonorrhea transmission. If a person develops gonorrhea once in their life, then they are at a higher risk of getting it again. (2)