SUSCEPTIBILITY OF NEISSERIA GONORRHOEAE TO ELEVEN ANTIBIOTICS AND SULFADIAZINE

Abstract

FOLLOWING the introduction and extensive use of sulfonamide drugs in the treatment of gonorrhea, increasing proportions of treatment failures from the use of these drugs were encountered.* Such treatment failures could be correlated with increased tolerance in vitro to sulfonamides by the strains isolated from the patients who responded poorly to sulfonamide therapy.† Fortunately, both sulfonamide-sensitive and sulfonamide-resistant strains of gonococci were found to be highly and equally susceptible in vitro to penicillin,‡ and infections with strains of both varieties responded equally well to treatment with this antibiotic.§ Increased tolerance to sulfonamides ∥ and to penicillin¶ could be induced by prolonged and repeated exposures of originally sensitive strains of gonococci in vitro. However, attempts to demonstrate penicillin-resistant strains of gonococci in cases of failures of penicillin treatment have generally failed,# and the rare reports of the isolation of such penicillin-resistant strains * have been dis- counted by other observers, who consider