Clinical spectrum of infection with Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

The traditional view that infections with Neisseria gonorrhoeae are predominantly symptomatic in men and predominantly asymptomatic in women has arisen from studies conducted in sexually transmitted disease clinics, which, by their nature, examine men with symptoms and women without symptoms. Recent studies have shown that most men and woen who are infected with N. gonorrhoeae develop symptoms as a result of that infection. These same studies have shown that a minority of patients develop asymptomatic gonococcal infection. Since asymptomatically infected men and women are less likely to seek treatment, they have a much longer duration of infection than do their symptomatic counterparts. Asymptomatically infected men and women thus accumulate, so that at any given time most of the men and women in the population who are infected with N. gonorrhoeae have no symptoms.