Diagnosis and incidence of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in Cape Coloured females in the Western Cape: laboratory aspects

Abstract

Specimens were taken, using carbon impregnated swabs, from the cervix, urethra and rectrum of 945 Cape Coloured gynaecological patients, and from the cervix only of 1,276 pregnant Cape Coloured women. These specimens were submitted to the laboratory in a modified Stuart transport medium and cultured on Thayer Martin medium. N. gonorrhoeae was cultured in 5.3% of the specimens from the gynaecological patients and in 5.3% of specimens from the pregnant women. All cultures showed type I or II colony pattern. No strains showed resistance to any of the antibiotics tested.