Gonococcal Infections in Newborns and in Adolescents

Gonococcal (GC) genital tract infection was first recognized by Hippocrates in the fifth century BC and later given its name — “gonorrhea” meaning “flow of semen” — by Galen in second century AD (Woods 2005). Despite the passage of time, much research, the advent of sensitive and specific diagnostic tests and effective antimi-crobial therapy, gonorrhea remains one of the most prevalent bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STI), in both industrialized and developing countries. This chapter focuses on gonococcal infections in two groups — newborns who acquire infection from their mothers at the time of delivery, and adolescents: a group at the center of the ongoing worldwide STI epidemic.