A mass screening program for the detection of gonorrhea

A 2½ year gonorrhea screening program in Chicago showed 7.5 per cent of women tested to be positive for Neisseria gonorrhoeae organisms with a single cervical culture. Young patients, unmarried patients, and black patients had the highest attack rates. Over 98 per cent of those with positive cultures were treated, and this program has probably contributed to a decline in reported gonorrhea morbidity in the first 6 months of 1971. In another group of 4,816 women seen at a venereal disease clinic, 24.4 per cent were positive at the cervix, rectum, or both. The addition of rectal tests to cervical tests is productive of many cases that would otherwise be missed. Three million units procaine penicillin G with 2 per cent aluminum monostearate (PAM) intramuscularly is inadequate treatment for gonorrhea in the woman.