Thedominance ofamultiresistant strain of Neisseria gonorrhoeae amongprostitutes andSTD patients inTheGambia

Objective-To studytheepidemiology of antibiotic resistant strains ofNeisseria gonorrhoeae fromsexually transmitted disease clinics inTheGambia. Materials and methods-Onehundred andsixty fivestrains ofN gonorrhoeae were tested fortheirantibiotic susceptibility, auxotype,serotype, and plasmid content. Results-Of thetotal population 84(51%) were non-penicillinase producing (nonPPNG)and81(49%'/.) penicillinaseproducing N gonorrhoeae (PPNG). There were 16serovars,fiveauxotypesand33 auxotypelserovar (AIS) classes inthetotal population and thenonPPNG. Among PPNG onlyfive serovars,two auxotypes andnineA/Sclasses were found.OneA/S class predominated, NRJIB-7 (86isolates), ofwhich66(77%)were PPNG and the remainderwere chromosomally-mediatedresistant N gonorrhoeae (CMRNG). Thesestrains alsoshowedreducedsusceptibility to ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone and tetracycline and werm evenlydistributed among patient groups. Conclusion-We haveidentified a relatively homogeneousgonococcal populationwitha core group of isolates exhibiting highlevels ofantibiotic resistance.