Gonorrhoea is an acute infection of the genito-urinary tract, and is almost always spread from person to person by sexual intercourse. In very rare cases it is spread by other methods. It can, for example, be spread from an infected mother to the eyes of her infant during childbirth.
The organism which causes gonorrhoea is a small bean-shaped germ called Neisseria gonorrhoeae (gonococcus), which is transferred from the urethra or from the entrance to the womb (the cervix) of an infected woman to the urethra of the man who is having sexual intercourse with her. If the man is homosexual it can be transferred during anal intercourse. Occasionally if the throat of the man’s partner is infected with gonorrhoea, he may be infected during fellatio.
The urethra, the cervix, the rectum, and the throat are lined with a single layer of cells, which the gonococcus finds easy to penetrate, and, having established a base, it multiplies very quickly. The vagina, which is lined by several layers of cells, is not affected, as the gonococcus is unable to penetrate this wall of cells.
*265/16/1*
