How can gonorrhoea be cured or treated? Medication, antibiotics, no sex.

If the strain of N. gonorrhoeae is well sensitive to the antibiotic administered and the patient has no other sexually transmitted diseases, a single administration of a combination of two antibiotics is sufficient: one administered by injection into the muscle and the other in tablet form.

In this way, the duration of the treatment will be extremely short: from giving the injection to taking the second medicine from the pharmacy (and swallowing it), it can be a matter of 1 hour.

Most often the following antibiotics are used:

• fluoroquinolones,
• cephalosporins of the 3rd generation,
• aminoglycosides or
• new macrolides.

In recent years, the increase in gonococcal resistance to almost all groups of antibiotics has been a worldwide problem.

In June 2012, the World Health Organization reported the emergence of strains of N. gonorrhoeae resistant to treatment with third-generation cephalosporins in Australia, Japan, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Currently, it is no longer recommended to administer the penicillin series, but it is advisable to apply antibiotics of the cephalosporin or macrolide series.

Symptoms should subside soon after treatment.

However, if symptoms persist for a few days after the end of treatment, check-ups are recommended to see if the treatment has worked.

These tests can be done as early as 3 days after the end of treatment, so if you are still experiencing any problems at that time, see your doctor again and he or she will decide if a follow-up is needed.

Treatment may be different for everyone, depending on whether:

• the person is allergic to a certain type of antibiotics,
• gonococcus has been found to be resistant to the treatment,
• the infection has spread.

NEVER self-medicate, discontinue treatment, or substitute a DIFFERENT type of antibiotic than your doctor prescribes!

When will the treatment be completed? What should I do after taking all the antibiotics?

After treatment, your doctor must take follow-up samples, even if you are no longer experiencing any problems, to see if the therapy (treatment) has worked - after 3 months from the end of treatment.

If you have had a complicated course of the disease, your doctor may decide to test you earlier as well.

Gonorrhoea test

• You can be tested for gonorrhoea either directly by your GP or by going to the regional public health office.
  • These tests are reimbursed by the health insurance company if indicated by the doctor.
  • The results are usually known within a few days to weeks, depending on the laboratory's workload.
• A swab is also taken from an infected part of the body, such as the vagina, urethra, rectum or throat, or a urine sample is collected in the form of a cassette-type test, which can be done in the clinic or in the doctor's office.
  • These tests usually give more accurate results for men than for women, but they work well as rapid diagnostic tests for antigen detection.
  • These are tests using vaginal or urethral secretions.
  • The result of such a cassette test is usually known within 15 minutes.

Don't forget your partners!

However, nothing ends with the examination and treatment of a sick person. It is important to identify the sexual partner from whom he or she may have contracted the disease.

Partners with whom he had sexual intercourse up to 60 days before the problems occurred are taken into account.

Consideration should also be given to the possibility that there are persons who may have been infected in turn by a sick person while unaware of the infection.

It is recommended that both the patient and his/her partner give up sexual activity for at least 7 days, even if they are cured and all symptoms have disappeared. There is a risk that you could infect each other.

Only very rarely does it happen that the treatment does not work. The most common cause of the return of problems is mutual reinfection.