What bacteria causes Neisseria gonorrhoeae?

What bacteria causes Neisseria gonorrhoeae?

What is gonorrhea? Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) caused by infection with the Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacterium. N. gonorrhoeae infects the mucous membranes of the reproductive tract, including the cervix, uterus, and fallopian tubes in women, and the urethra in women and men.

What is the function of Neisseria gonorrhoeae?

Neisseria gonorrhoeae is an obligate human pathogen that causes mucosal surface infections of male and female reproductive tracts, pharynx, rectum, and conjunctiva.

Is Neisseria gonorrhoeae positive or negative?

Background. Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the causative agent of gonorrhoea, is a Gram negative, coffee-bean shaped facultative intracellular diplococcus bacterium, the classical sexually transmitted bacteria.

How does Neisseria gonorrhoeae grow?

A fastidious organism, N. gonorrhoeae requires enriched media in a CO2 atmosphere at 35 degrees to 37 degrees C for growth. In addition, N. gonorrhoeae expresses potent autolysins whose activity increases following glucose depletion during stationary phase, leading to cell death.

Does Neisseria gonorrhoeae produce toxins?

The genus Neisseria includes both commensal and pathogenic species which are genetically closely related. However, only meningococcus and gonococcus are important human pathogens. Very few toxins are known to be secreted by pathogenic Neisseria species.

What kind of damage can gonorrhea cause?

Untreated gonorrhea can cause infections of the fallopian tubes, cervix, uterus, and abdomen. This is called pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). It can permanently damage the reproductive system and make you infertile (not able to have children). PID is treated with antibiotics.

Does gonorrhea grow in urine culture?

If a culture is done, no gonorrhea bacteria grow in the culture. More testing for other sexually transmitted infections may be needed to find the cause of any symptoms.

Does gonorrhea cause skin lesions?

Patients with disseminated gonorrhea usually have no urogenital symptoms. The skin lesions typically are few and are limited to the extremities; they start as papules and progress into hemorrhagic pustules. Bullae, petechiae, or necrotic lesions also may be present.

What are some long term effects of gonorrhea?

Untreated gonorrhea can lead to major complications, such as:

• Infertility in women.
• Infertility in men.
• Infection that spreads to the joints and other areas of your body.
• Increased risk of HIV/AIDS.
• Complications in babies.

How does gonorrhea affect the immune system?

Having a gonorrhea infection weakens your immune system, making you more susceptible to other diseases. The HIV virus can easily get into your body if your urethra is irritated. If you have both HIV and gonorrhea, then you are more likely to transmit HIV to another person.