Increasing Failure Rate after using the Same Preparation and Dosage of Penicillin in the Treatment of Gonorrhoea

Abstract

Although to date there is no evidence that the sensitivity of Treponema pallidum to penicillin has decreased, the syphilologist is made uneasy by the increasing number of reports of the decreased sensitivity of the gonococcus to penicillin. Gjessing reports that from 1954 to 1957 there was a greater than 4-fold increase in the percentage of relapses in gonorrhea treated with the identical dose of the identical penicillin preparation, relapse accepted as largely due to development of relatively resistant gonococcus strains. Some cases are still cured by comparatively small amounts of penicillin although bacteriologic examination has shown a relative decrease of sensitivity. This fact still requires an explanation. As a result of his findings, the author doubled penicillin dosage for gonorrhea in Jan., 1958.