Show Gonorrhea issexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhea Onlysmall percentage of males will be asymptomatic but females are often asymptomatic Males with gonorrhea usually have an acute purulent discharge from the penis and painful urination Females typically havemucopurulent cenvicitis and may experience abnormal vaginal discharge and bleeding In about 20 percent of females there is an invasion of the uterine tissues with endometritis pelvic inflammatory disease and pelvic peritonitis These invasions of tissue carryrisk for infertiity and ectopic pregnancy Other complications of gonorrhea include conjunctivitis and disseminated gonococeal infection DGI Conjunctivitis may occur in newborns of mothers who are infected with gonorrhea If the newbomns are not rapidly and adequately treated they may become blind DG occurs in less than one percent of all gonococcal infections Arthitis skin lesions endocarditis and meningitis may ocour Arthritis can produce permanent joint damage if appropriate antibiotic treatment is delayed Death is rare except among those with endocardiis Control of Communicable Disease Manual 97-99 The primary limitation of this study is that the results are based on reports received through passive surveillance and it is likely that there is underreporting While this may be true we have no evidence to suggest that underreporting varies by county Therefore comparisons across the state should be valid Another limitation of the study is the lack of statistical power to permit the comparison of sparsely populated counties to the rest of the state While some of the sparsely populated counties have disease rates higher than those for Utah aswhole their few cases and small population size makes it difficult to compare their rates to the rest of the state while maintaining significant statistical power Chlamydia and gonorrhea are common infections in Utah In 1999 chlamydia was the most commonly reported infectious disease in Utah and gonorrhea was among the top five reported diseases Utah Department of Health Bureau of Epidemiology However the rates of chlamydial and gonorrheal infections in Utah remain below the Healthy People 2000 Objectives and are either close to or below the Healthy People 2010 Objectives Healthy People 2000 91 Tracking Healthy People 2010 00 The Healthy People 2010 target for chlamydia is better than the best or better than the state with the lowest rates and for gonorrhea the 2010 target is 19 new cases per 100 000 persons Tracking Healthy People 2010 00 In 1999 only three states Maine Vermont and New Hampshire had lower rates than Utah for chlamydia and six states Maine Montana New Hampshire North Dakota Vermont and Wyoming had lower rates for gonorrhea Division of Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention 2000 While the overall rates for chlamydia and gonorrhea in Utah are low the diseases are not randomly distributed throughout Utahpopulation This investigation revealeddifference in disease distribution by county Prudent public health practice would suggestneed for further study to identfy specific populations core groups within these counties who should be targeted for intense prevention and education efforts a5 Digital image 2005 Marriott Library University of Utah Al rights reserved |