Pharyngeal Gonorrhea: An Important Reservoir of Infection?

Cross-sectional study of pharyngeal and genital chlamydia and gonorrhoea infections in emergency department patients: Table 1

“…Pharyngeal GC (GC oral ) infections are more difficult to medically eradicate, may be a reservoir of antimicrobial-resistant infection and like CT oral are commonly asymptomatic 5 6. Recent studies of heterosexual pharyngeal infection have found that 3.5–6.8% of adolescent female hospital and clinic patients had GC oral ; prevalence of CT oral /GC oral among Japanese men with urethritis was 2.4%/11.9%, respectively, increasing to 9.1%/25.0% among those with chlamydial or gonococcal urethritis; 23% of individuals with GC oral infections lacked concurrent genital or rectal infections and that pharyngeal-to-genital infection may occur through oral sex 7–10…”

Unprotected fellatio between female sex workers and their clients in Sydney, Australia

“…Fellatio may also be an important route of both acquisition and transmission of some STIs,6 7 and pharyngeal gonorrhoea has been postulated as an important reservoir contributing to ongoing incident infections8 and the emergence of drug resistance 9. Condom use for fellatio is uncommon among heterosexual couples, indeed a study in the UK revealed a rate of consistent condom use for fellatio of just 2% 10.…”

Analytical Evaluation of GeneXpert CT/NG, the First Genetic Point-of-Care Assay for Simultaneous Detection of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis

“…These approaches are, in particular, important for detection from the rectum and oropharynx, which is crucial particularly in population groups of men who have sex with men (20) or with history of oral and/or anal sex. Currently, extragenital specimens are not licensed for use by the FDA; however, several studies have conducted an evaluation and shown appropriate sensitivity with these types of samples using the available commercial NAATs (21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28).…”