Pharyngeal colonisation by Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Neisseria meningitidis in black and white patients attending a venereal disease clinic.

Abstract

SUMMARY Pharyngeal colonisation by Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Neisseria meningitidis was studied in 2000 patients attending a venereal disease clinic. Of these patients, 64 % were white and 36% were black. The incidence of gonococcal infections was highest in the period from June to August. The incidence of genital or rectal infections or both was higher in the black patients. Pharyngeal colonisation by gonococci was present in 1 3 % of the patients. There were no significant associations between pharyngeal colonisation and the pharyngeal symptoms, race, sex, or marital state of the patients. Pharyngeal colonisation was more frequent in patients with gonococcal infections at other sites. However, in 40 7 % of the patients with pharyngeal colonisation, the pharynx was the only culture-positive site. There was no significant difference in the auxotypes or in the antibiotic susceptibility of the pharyngeal and the rectal-genital isolates except in the susceptibility to spectinomycin. Our findings do not indicate that gonococci isolated from the pharynx differ significantly from gonococci isolated from rectal or genital sites. It was notable that meningococcal colonisation of the pharynx was significantly more frequent in the white patients. This may be a genetically determined phenomenon.

Acquisition of new genes by oral Neisseria.

“…The unduly high frequency of meningococcal carriage in patients with gonorrhoea noticed by Willcox et all was confirmed by Rufli2 and Young et al,3 but not by Noble et al 4 Differences in reported results may be related to the type of population studied. Most of the patients studied in the sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic at St Mary's were male homosexuals with a recent history of oral sexual intercourse.…”

Auxotypes and antimicrobial susceptibilities of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in black and white patients.

“…Racial differences in the colonisation by pathogenic bacteria have been found among patients for whom cultures for staphylococci and meningococci have been performed. [18][19][20] Colonisation by both these micro-organisms is more common in whites than in blacks contrary to what might be expected as a result of overcrowding or other factors associated with low socioeconomic status.…”

Gonococcal Carriage in the Throat – No Common Findings Anyhow?

“…While all of these authors compare the frequency of gonococci present in the genitals and meningococci present in the pharynx one could also assume that high pharyngeal meningococcal carriage rates should be associated with an ele vated carriage rate for gonococci in the throat. But that is seemingly not the case, neither in a population not selected for VD reasons as the one analyzed here nor in VD patients as demonstrated by Noble et al [13], While these authors found meningococci in the pharynges of 9.5% of their 2,000 patients and gonococci in 1.3%, only 2 of the latter 27 patients at the same time harbored meningococci there.…”