Susceptibility of Neisseria gonorrhoeae to cefotaxime and ceftizoxime.

Abstract

There were 239 penicillinase-positive and 240 penicillinase-negative strains of N. gonorrhoeae tested for their susceptibility to cefotaxime. All were susceptible to cefotaxime at a concentration of 0.062 .mu.g/ml. Penicillinase-negative strains were less susceptible than penicillinase-positive strains. This is attributed to the use of prophylactic antibiotics by prostitutes, which had led to the selection of less susceptible penicillinase-negative strains but has not affected the susceptibility of penicillinase-positive strains. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of cefotaxime showed significant positive correlations with those of penicillin, ampicillin, tetracycline and kanamycin but had a negative correlation with spectinomycin. The related cephalosporin, ceftizoxime, was found to be as effective as cefotaxime against penicillinase-positive and penicillinase-negative gonococci.