Women contacts of men with gonorrhea: case-finding yields.

During a 12-month period intensive case-finding services (interviewing of patients and tracing of contacts) were provided to 255 women contacts of men who had gonorrhea. Approximately three contacts per case were evaluated, and 50% (374 of 739) of the male contacts were infected. If the 255 symptomatic men whose infection led to (and preceded) enrollment in our study population are excluded, 484 contacts remain, of whom 119 (24.6%) were infected. Nearly half (57 of 119) of the infected contacts were asymptomatic. Active public health intervention was frequently necessary to persuade asymptomatic men to seek medical attention. We recommend that case-finding services be offered to women with gonorrhea who initially present as contacts of infected men.

Prepubertal infections with Neisseria gonorrhoeae: clinical and epidemiologic significance.

The family constellations and epidemiologic circumstances of three prepubertal girls with vulvovaginitis due to Neisseria gonorrhoeae are reported. In each instance, an infected asymptomatic man, himself a contact to a woman with pelvic inflammatory disease, could be implicated as the potential source of infection. In one instance, asymptomatic infection in a child was uncovered through epidemiologic investigation. Prepubertal gonococcal vaginitis is important not only as a potential indicator of child abuse, but also as a possible link to important transmitters of gonococcal infection. The need for meticulous epidemiologic investigation of these cases is stressed.