Treatment of gonorrhoea with single oral doses of ampicillin plus probenecid II. Comparison of results in London and Wales

Abstract

A total of 220 male patients with acute uncomplicated gonorrhoea, 114 at London or Windsor and 106 at Swansea or Port Talbot, have been treated with 2 g. ampicillin plus 1 g. probenecid at a single session. The patients in the two groups showed close similarities as regard age, habits of consorting with strangers, complaints of dysuria, and attendance for follow up examination. They differed in that substantially more of the Swansea/Port Talbot group were married, non immigrant, had less recent homosexual experience, less previous venereal disease, and took longer to report to the clinic for treatment. Overall, of the 220 patients treated, 185 were followed and, judged by a denial of further sexual exposure, the failure rate was 6.5%. By this criterion, the failure rate was significantly greater (10.6%) in the London/Windsor series than in the Swansea/Port Talbot series (2.2%). When all recurrences within 1 or 2 weeks after treatment were regarded as failures irrespective of history, the failure rate of the Swansea/Port Talbot series (2.2%) was not reduced but that of the London/Windsor series fell to 5.3 and 6.4%. It is considered likely, therefore, that 40 to 50% of the suspected failures encountered in the London area were in fact re infections. But nevertheless, when these had been allowed for, the failure rate in the Swansea/Port Talbot series was still 2.4 to 2.9 times lower than that in the London/Windsor group. This difference is probably related to differences in penicillin (ampicillin) sensitivities in the two areas. The results obtained in Wales with this regime were not dissimilar to those reported from Scandinavia.