Gonorrhoea symptoms prominent in men

Washington, July 2: Gender matters when it comes to gonorrhoea since symptoms in men are more prominent than in women.

A recent study by researchers from Tufts University School of Medicine conducted the first full comparison of gonococcal gene expression and regulation in both men and women infected with Neisseria Gonorrhoeae, thereby identifying gender- specific signatures in infection and in antibiotic resistance genes.

In the last decade, however, there has been an emergence of strains of antimicrobial- resistant N. Gonorrhoea, the bacterial pathogen responsible for gonorrhoea.

In 2013, N. Gonorrhoeae was announced as a public health threat.

The World Health Organization estimates that 78 million people worldwide are infected with gonorrhea each year.

Men with infections tend to have obvious symptoms while women are often asymptomatic or experience mild symptoms. In both men and women, the infection clears with antibiotic treatment.

“We built on our earlier work on gene expression during infection in females to include both genders in the present analysis, so we see for the first time the expression profiles during active disease in males and their asymptomatic partners,” said a researcher, Caroline A. Genco.