Gonococci - Pathogens of Growing Importance. Part 1. Current Data on Diagnostics, Genotyping and Therapy

Neisseria gonorrhoeae is an aetiological agent of gonorrhoea, which is a sexually transmitted disease (STD), a public health challenge worldwide. Gonorrhoea is undoubtedly a serious health risk, especially for women, due to its often asymptomatic course and the possibility of upper genital tract complications such as pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), which can result in infertility. The data show that the diagnostic method for N. gonorrhoeae should be specific, simple, sensitive, rapid and inexpensive. Currently, phenotypic identification methods have been dominated by NAAT methods, which allow detection and identification of gonococcus directly in the clinical specimen. However, up today molecular methods do not allow full determination of drug susceptibility.