Treatment of gonorrhoea by one oral dose of ampicillin and probenecid combined.

Ithasbeenshown(Odegaard, 1962) bysensitivity testing invitro thattheeffect ofampicillin onmost gonococcal strains issomewhat weaker thanthatof penicillin G,buttheeffect onstrains lesssensitive isbetter withampicillin thanwithpenicillin G. ReynandBentzon (1968), insupport ofthis, found thatthe50percent. inhibitory concentrations for thenaturally-occurring moresensitive strains were abouttwice ashighwithampicillin aswithsodium penicillin G, whereas an opposite tendency was observed intheless sensitive strains. Asthegreat majority ofrelapses after treatment withpenicillin occurinpatients infected with gonococci withreduced sensitivity topenicillin, itis therefore possible thatampicillin couldbe an effective remedyinthetreatment ofgonorrhoea. Thishasproved tobethecase.Willcox (1963) founda failure rateof119 percent.inmale patients withuncomplicated gonorrhoea treated withasingle oraldoseof05g.ampicillin, which provedcomparable totheresults achieved with single injections ofaqueousprocaine penicillin. Willcox(1964) alsofoundthattheresults of ampicillin given orally weresomewhat better than thoseobtained withampicillin byinjection. Alergant(1963), administering ampicillin asa single 1g.oraldoseinthetreatment ofuncomplicated gonorrhoea inmales, hadacurerateof95percent., whichwashigher thanthatobtained withany previous oralpreparation ofpenicillin, andhe considered ampicillin tobea suitable alternative topenicillin byinjection inthetreatment ofgonorrhoea.Marmell, Sills, Brown,andPrigot (1964) obtained excellent results withampicillin given in divided dosesof1g.WhenGjessing andOdegaard (1965) treated 500maleswithoneoraldoseof1g. ampicillin combined withonesimultaneous injectionof600,000 units procaine penicillin therelapse frequency was3 percent., whereas 500patients