Gonorrhea - what is it? Description of the disease, signs, treatment

It is believed that venereal diseases have appeared in the world at the same time as a person. For example, gonorrhea can be found in the Bible and even in treatises of ancient Greek scholars. The second popular name for this disease is the gonorrhea. Many are sure that it is possible to catch this infection only through sexual intercourse, and are more or less aware of what constitutes gonorrhea. What is blenoreia, urethritis, cervicitis, proctitis, know not all. Meanwhile, all these and a dozen dangerous diseases with severe consequences can be called derivatives of gonorrhea, because it is their trigger mechanism.

Portrait of the pathogen

Even those who have heard that there is such a venereal disease - gonorrhea, what is the gonococcus causing it, is weak. We will try to fill this gap. There are dozens of bacteria that parasitize a person and sometimes bring him to the grave. One of them is a gram-negative diploid gonococcus from the genus Neisseria - the causative agent of gonorrhea. These parasites look like grains of coffee or beans, live in pairs, why they are called diploid. The word "gram-negative" has no relation to the weight of bacteria and means that they do not change their color when staining according to the method of the scientist Gramm. The genus of Neisseria is named in honor of the scientist who discovered them, Albert Neisser. Flagellum gonococci do not have, therefore are practically immovable. Vorsinki, or drinking, with which each of them is surrounded, serve not for moving, but for attachment to the mucous. These bacteria live in colonies, which is well traced in the smears of the patient.

Properties in the external environment

The causative agent of gonorrhea feels free only in nutrient media, especially if there is a native (unchanged) human protein, and in the person himself. In the external environment, its viability is low. So, the gonococci die in a matter of seconds in a usual soap solution, quickly die under the action of even weak antiseptics (silver salts, betadine, alcohol and others), they die as the mucus and pus dry out in which they are. This feature is very useful for humans and is used as a prophylaxis for gonorrhea. However, there are cases when gonococci not only safely existed, but also multiplied on the surface of the epithelium, penetrating into the inner layers, blood and lymph vessels.

Properties of bacteria living in the human body

Fantastic vitality, unpredictability and virulence of the pathogen - that's what dangerous gonorrhea. What is gonococci in a favorable environment for them? These are quiet, secretive beings who kill in secret, because, penetrating into the organism of their victim (person), they most often do not expose their destructive health for a long time. Ill person does not even know about the presence of his disease and continues to actively infect others. Gonococcus in the meantime is building up its colonies, capturing new territories and spreading from the mucous (the place of primary implantation) into internal organs. Getting used to a new place of residence, these harmful bacteria produce a special enzyme beta-lactamase, which protects them from drugs. The human body tries to fight the invaders and attacks them with bacteriophages. But gonococci are so tenacious that not only do they not die when they are eaten, but they also continue to multiply. Another of their ways of survival is the ability to mutate, creating L-forms, to which many antibiotics do not work.

"Companions" of gonorrhea

Not everyone can realize how insidious is gonorrhea. What is the symbiosis of living organisms is known to everyone. Gonococci also form a symbiosis with another parasite - the vaginal trichomonas. The trichomonias caused by it are unusually widespread all over the world, therefore it is not difficult to get infected with it if the precautions are not observed. The above trichomonads are somewhat larger than the gonococci and readily absorb them. Once inside, gonorrhea bacteria continue to multiply, but are perfectly protected from antibiotics. In addition, gonococci often settle in mucous membranes along with chlamydia, pale treponema (syphilis pathogen), candida fungi, herpes viruses, which makes diagnosis difficult. After curing of gonorrhea, accompanying parasites continue to cause further inflammation.

Ways of infection

Since it is considered a venereal disease of gonorrhea, the reasons for its appearance are mainly related to the sexual life of a person. However, there are everyday ways of infection. So, gonorrhea can be picked up when:

• Unprotected sexual acts (oral, vaginal, anal sex);
• Sharing with the patient a common towel, linen, washcloths;
• Children become infected with gonococci during childbirth;
• Girls can get sick if they do not comply with the hygiene of the urino-genital organs (gonorrhea "pottery");
• In the eyes of gonococci are brought by hands (there is a blennorea);
• Also gonorrhea can be brought by household way with the help of dirty hands in the mouth (gonorrheal pharyngitis, stomatitis).

In public places (a sauna, a sauna, a pool), subject to the use of individual hygiene items, the probability of infection with gonorrhea is so small that it is considered to be zero.

Classification

How quickly does the pathology develop? What stages does gonorrhea have? The periods, or phases of the disease, are as follows:

• Fresh (acute), at which from the time of infection it took up to 2 months;
• Chronic, lasting for years.

Initially hitting women in mucous vaginas, and in men - on the head of the penis, gonococci spread further through the genitourinary organs, causing their inflammation and all sorts of complications, including infertility and miscarriages. This is the most dangerous gonorrhea. The forms of the disease are as follows:

• Genital;
• Extragenital;
• Metastatic.

Genital gonorrhea includes diseases of the genital organs and their departments. In women, it is salpingo-oophoritis (inflammation of the ovaries and fallopian tubes) and cervicitis (inflammation of the cervix).

In girls gonococci parasitize only in the vagina, and the uterus and appendages do not penetrate.

In men it is prostatitis, urethritis, vizcekulitis (a seminal vesicle is inflamed).

To extragenital gonorrhea include diseases of the non-genital organs caused by gonococci. In addition to the aforementioned gonorrheal diseases of the eyes and oral cavity, it can be proctitis (rectal disease), cystitis, kidney gonorrhea, gonococcemia (affected joints, skin) and sepsis. It should be said that gonococci do not like the blood serum, which kills them in seconds. Therefore, the blood flow to the organs of the genitourinary system, they are not carried. But sometimes the patients are resistant to serum enzymes. In these cases gonococci do not perish, but spread throughout the body.

Metastatic gonorrhea is a complication and aggravation of the previous two.

How is gonorrhea manifested in women and girls?

An amazing and very dangerous feature of this disease is that it can months and even years in general not be manifested. This is observed in about 10% of men and 80% of women. At the same time, all these patients are bacterial carriers. The incubation period for acute gonorrhea can last from 1 day to 1 month after the date of the alleged infection. At the end of the incubation period, some women feel a slight itch on the eve of the vagina and in the anus (with proctitis), sometimes a short pain when urinating and notice the unimportant discharge in the form of whites. When gonococci enter the mouth, a small percentage of women have inflammation of the tonsils and a slight swelling in the throat. Since gonorrhea is so weak , treatment in women at the initial stages of the disease is rare. In most cases, mild symptoms are not appreciated and try to cope with them with household remedies.

In girls, gonorrhea is also manifested by itching and swelling of the genitals with purulent-mucous discharge. The general condition of patients at the initial stage of the disease is always normal.

Manifestation of gonorrhea in men

A strong half of humanity quickly notes that there is something wrong with their genitourinary system. The first symptoms of gonorrhea in men are short-term soreness with urination, purulent (sometimes with unpleasant odor) discharge, slight redness and a slight swelling of the penis head. Since gonococci in men very quickly after infection penetrate into the urethra, begins its inflammation, or the so-called urethritis. For the first time, the symptoms are smeared. In the mornings, patients note some soreness and a rapid burning sensation when urinating. Urine remains transparent, purulent threads in it very little. Unpleasant symptoms intensify after sexual intercourse, alcohol intake and certain types of food. After a week, three sharply expressed symptoms fade, and the disease turns into a chronic one - with periods of remission and exacerbations - a stage.

Diagnostics

Some "clever", having found purulent discharge from their sexual organs, do not hurry to the doctor, and they go to buy "tablets from gonorrhea". This often leads to the fact that a person takes unnecessary antibiotics, temporarily removes unpleasant symptoms and translates the disease into a chronic stage, during which gonococcal penetration deeper into the body. In order for the treatment to be effective, it is necessary to carry out a diagnosis. It includes:

• Examination with a doctor;
• Analysis of urine;
• Obligatory delivery of a smear;
• Bakpos (ready for about a week, but gives 100% accuracy of the result);
• PCR analysis (especially effective in the absence of pronounced symptoms).

The analysis of a blood at suspicion on a gonorrhea is not undertaken. The final diagnosis is established only if found in the bacteriosseous or in the smear of gonococci.

Treatment

Gonorrhea is treated out-patiently or in kozhvendispanserah, which determines the doctor, a venereologist. The direction of the patient in the hospital is possible in cases of complications of the disease and in evading the passage of outpatient therapy. If the diagnosis of "gonorrhea" is absolutely certain, treatment for women and men produces antibiotics of a group of penicillins ("Oxacillin", "Amoxicillin" and others). Unfortunately, the gonococci were so long disposed of by these means that the bacteria developed resistance to them already at their genetic level. The low sensitivity of gonococci is also noted for tetracycline, ampicillin, spectinomycin groups of drugs. To especially tenacious forms of bacteria apply "Ceftriaxone" or "Rocefin". These antibiotics can penetrate into any tissues and organs. If a person who suspects a gonorrhea, immediately go to the doctor, the treatment can be rapid. It will take a one-time intravenous injection of "Rocefina" in a volume of 250 mg.

There are no popular methods of getting rid of gonorrhea. The only thing that can be used from the advice of healers as a supplement to medicines is the washing of the genitals with drugs that remove inflammatory processes (decoction of chamomile, celandine, dandelion roots and other herbs). Needless to say, such procedures are only a supplement to the drug therapy.

Complications

The ability of gonococci to adapt and to resist medicinal products must necessarily be taken into account by a venereologist when prescribing medicines. When a person is engaged in self-medication and takes "pills from gonorrhea" on the advice of friends, almost always there are complications. They, like the primary disease, do not manifest themselves immediately. At first the patient gets the impression that he has completely recovered. For women, complications of gonorrhea are fraught with infertility, ectopic pregnancy, miscarriages. Another dangerous disease caused by untreated or untreated gonorrhea is hydrosalpinx. With this pathology puff accumulates in the fallopian tube, the external picture resembles a tumor. A woman experiences headaches and lumbar pains, fever. If the tube breaks and the pus flows into the pelvic area, pelvioperitonitis begins, which is fraught with a lethal outcome.

Bartholinitis (a purulent inflammatory process of the vestibular glands) is no less dangerous.

In men, the most dangerous consequences of gonorrhea are prostatitis, which can lead to impotence, and epididymitis (inflammation of the testicles), causing infertility.

Important! No venereal disease, and gonorrhea including, do not give immunity, so they can be infected endlessly.

Prevention

Specific methods of transmission of gonorrhea determine preventive measures against this disease. The first place on the list is the use of condoms during sexual intercourse in all cases, if there is no 100% confidence in the partner. On the second - the observance of personal hygiene.

An important point is observation at the venereologist within 3 months after the end of treatment and passing the control tests.