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In 1960 spectinomycin, a new broad spectrum antibiotic, was released for clinical investigation and it was shown that the administration of 2 g. of the sulphate salt was effective therapy in acute gonorrhoea yielding cure rates of approximately 87 to 95 per cent. in males. The cure rate in females was 92 per cent. with a 3 g. dose (Laird and Taylor, 1962; Wilcox, 1963;Tiedemann, Hackney, and Price, 1965;Sparling, Yobs, Billings, and Hackney, 1966 ResultsThe results of this study are summarised in the Table. Of 165 men treated, 108 returned for examination and there were no cases of treatment failure.Of the forty women treated with 2 g. doses, 29 were followed; the only patient from whom a positive culture was obtained admitted exposure to risk of infection during the observation period. If this case is considered to be a re-infection, the cure rate for the remaining 28 cases is 100 per cent.Among the 108 women who received 4 g., 67 of the 71 who returned for examination yielded negative results to cultures. Of the four in whom a positive culture was obtained after treatment, one was judged a re-infection on a history of further intercourse and three were considered to be due to failure of

is the cause of America's most prevalent reportable bacterial infection. Reported cases increased during and shortly following World War II, reached a peak of 400,639 cases in 1947, and fell to a low of 216,-476 cases in 1957. Since 1957 there has been a steady rise in the number of cases, with a total of 494,227 reported for the United States in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1969 (1). The estimate of the actual number of cases occurring is about 1.5 million (2). Because of the extremely high and increasing incidence of gonorrhea, I felt it would be auspicious to report the seasonal nature of reported cases in the United States.

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