Treatment of Gonorrhea

Broad spectrum antibiotics, given orally, were compared with penicillin for treatment of uncomplicated gonorrhea in male patients at the New Haven Health Department VD Clinic. Treatment success appeared more favorable with doxycycline than with penicillin, although the differences between the two drugs were not statistically significant. In addition to the acceptable therapeutic results, several public health considerations suggest the broad spectrum antibiotics as the drugs of first choice in the routine care of uncomplicated gonorrhea. Penicillin appears too valuable a drug to be used injudiciously for a disease which is as widespread and as likely to recur as gonorrhea.