Gonorrhea in Adolescent Girls in a Closed Population

In a closed population of 1,899 girls, vaginal and cervical smears and cultures were evaluated for diagnosis of gonorrheal infection. Two hundred twenty six cases (11.8%) were diagnosed on primary admission or readmission. Positive diagnoses were made on 213 (94.2%) by vaginal specimens; cervical specimens taken later revealed an additional 13 (5.8%). Of 268 positive specimens, 177 were positive by the culture method and negative by the gram-stained smear. From 1966 to 1968, three of 121 patients (2.3%) treated with five daily injections of aqueous penicillin G procaine, 1.2 million units, were treatment failures. From 1968 to 1969, four of 62 patients (6.4%) treated with 2.7 million units of a mixture of procaine and sodium forms of penicillin G in aqueous solution were treatment failures. All treatment failures responded either to a different penicillin regimen or to tetracycline.