What is Gonorrhea? Video Transcript

Participants

, Brian A. Boyle MD, Adam Stracher MD, David Folk Thomas

Summary

Join our panel of experts for a discussion of gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease that may affect as many as 2 million people each year in the U.S. alone.

Webcast Transcript

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: Welcome to our webcast. I'm David Folk Thomas. The topic today is gonorrhea. Now I know that probably sends shivers through most of your spines out there. It's an important topic. It's sexually transmitted disease or STD. You know in this day and age of AIDS dominating all the news, there is a tendency to just forget about all the other STDs, but they are very important and what you know about it could help prevent you from getting them.

We're joined right now by two experts who have come down to our studios. On my left, Dr. Adam Stracher and sitting next to him, Dr. Brian Boyle. They are both attending physicians at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Cornell University Medical Center. They are both Assistant Professors in the Department of International Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Cornell University Medical College. Now after getting all that out, we don't have time for our program. Thank you very much. Doctors, thanks for joining us here today.

Gonorrhea. Let's start with Dr. Boyle. Explain to people out there exactly what it is.

BRIAN BOYLE, MD: Gonorrhea is a bacterial infection that is sexually transmitted, generally, and that causes a number of different symptoms over time that tend to worsen and perhaps spread.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: Dr. Stracher, how is it sexually transmitted?

ADAM STRACHER, MD: It is transmitted by vaginal intercourse, anal intercourse, and it can also be transmitted through oral intercourse, and it is spread from one person who has an infection to another person who is not infected.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: There are estimates that some 2 million Americans every year contract gonorrhea. I guess the number of documented cases is much less. I think it's somewhere around less than a million or 500,000. That means there are a lot of people, suspected cases, that have it and are not getting treatment. How do we know how many people out there have it, and what do you say about that high number of unreported cases?

ADAM STRACHER, MD: The unreported cases, as you said, suggest that there are many people who have infection or who are carrying infection with gonorrhea and are not symptomatic. Also, undocumented may go unreported because we sometimes treat people who have symptoms without documenting those infections. But the problem with gonorrhea is that many infections may be asymptomatic, and yet patients may spread it to other individuals.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: Now, Dr. Boyle, what are some of the symptomatic symptoms -- Is that a little redundant? -- of gonorrhea? Then we'll get to the whole thing about asymptomatic situations.

BRIAN BOYLE, MD: Much as is true of some of the other sexually transmitted diseases, it causes a discharge, a urinary tract, a penile discharge or a vaginal discharge. It can also cause pelvic and abdominal pain, and it can also cause pain when you urinate. Those are the symptoms, generally, that occur in the first wave of this infection, which occurs about seven days after you've been infected. Then, as time goes on, gonorrhea gonococcus can spread and can cause skin diseases, joint disease and other organ diseases if it's not treated and taken care of at a relatively early stage.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: What does this discharge look like? What kind of form is that?

ADAM STRACHER, MD: It's usually a yellowish discharge from the penis or from the cervix or vagina. Oftentimes, women may notice a vaginal discharge or their gynecologist may notice a cervical discharge when they get examined. In men, they may notice a yellowish discharge, either from the tip of their penis or they may notice it in their underwear. As Dr.