Treatments for Gonorrhea

Treatment list for Gonorrhea: The list of treatments mentioned in various sources for Gonorrhea includes the following list. Always seek professional medical advice about any treatment or change in treatment plans.

Antibiotics
- Penicillin - once the most useful treatment but now there are resistent strains and other antibiotics are used.
- Sulphonamides
- Tetracyclines
- Ceftriaxone
- Cefixime
- Ciprofloxacin
- Ofloxacin
Treatments for combined gonorrhea and chlamydia infections
- Antibiotic combinations
- Ceftriaxone
- Doxycycline
- Azithromycin
Avoid sexual activity
Careful hygiene to avoid contagion
Avoid rubbing eyes

Treatments of Gonorrhea discussion: Many of the currently used antibiotics can successfully cure gonorrhea in adolescents and adults. Penicillin is a common antibiotic that is no longer used to treat gonorrhea, because many strains of the gonorrhea bacterium have become resistant to penicillin. Because many people with gonorrhea also have chlamydia, antibiotics for both infections are usually given together. Persons with gonorrhea should also be screened for other STDs.

It is important to take all of the medication prescribed to cure gonorrhea, even if the symptoms or signs stop before all the medication is gone. Although medication will stop the infection, it will not repair any permanent damage done by the disease. Persons who have had gonorrhea and have been treated can also get the disease again if they have sexual contact with an infected person. ¹

In sexually transmitted disease clinics that monitor outbreaks of drug-resistant infections, doctors have found that more than 30 percent of gonorrhea isolates are resistant to penicillin or tetracycline, or both. ²

Doctors usually prescribe a single dose of one of the following antibiotics to treat gonorrhea:

Ceftriaxone
Cefixime
Ciprofloxacin
Ofloxacin

If you have gonorrhea and are pregnant or are younger than 18 years old, you should not take ciprofloxacin or ofloxacin. Your doctor can prescribe the best and safest antibiotic for you.

Gonorrhea and chlamydial infection, another common STD, often infect people at the same time. Therefore, doctors usually prescribe a combination of antibiotics, such as ceftriaxone and doxycycline or azithromycin, which will treat both diseases.

If you have gonorrhea, all of your sexual partners should get tested and then treated if infected, whether or not they have symptoms of infection. ³

Historically, penicillin has been used to treat gonorrhea, but in the last decade, four types of antibiotic resistance have emerged. New antibiotics or combinations of drugs must be used to treat these resistant strains.⁴

Ampicillin, amoxicillin, or some type of penicillin used to be recommended for the treatment of gonorrhea. Because penicillin-resistant gonorrhea is increasing, other antibiotics that are given by injection such as ceftriazone or spectinomycin now are used to treat most gonoccal infections. Other new antibiotics can be taken by mouth.

Gonorrhea often occurs together with chlamydial infection, another common sexually transmitted disease (STD). Therefore, doctors usually prescribe a combination of antibiotics, such as ceftriazone and doxycycline, to treat both diseases. All sex partners of a person with gonorrhea should be tested and treated appropriately, even if they do not have symptoms of infection. ⁵

Footnotes:
1. excerpt from Gonorrhea: DSTD
2. excerpt from Antimicrobial Resistance, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID
3. excerpt from Gonorrhea, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID
4. excerpt from Sexually Transmitted Diseases, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID
5. excerpt from Gonorrhea: NWHIC

Last revision: May 27, 2003

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