Neisseria meningitidis Urethritis

FOR years, the sine qua non of gonococcal infection in the male patient has been a thick, purulent urethral discharge and evidence of Gramnegative intracellular diplococci on smear examination. Indeed, these findings are used for presumptively diagnosing gonorrhea in males. Similarly for the female patient, an oxidase-positive colony that shows Gram-negative diplococci by microscopic examination is often accepted as a gonococcus without further investigation. As early as 1939, attention was drawn to microorganisms that could invalidate the diagnosis of gonorrhea by the smear method. DeBord1indicated such forMima polymorpha (Moraxella osloensis), and in 1942 Carpenter and Charles2reported the isolation ofNeisseria meningitidisfrom gonococcal-like discharge in seven male patients. Little attention has been paid toN meningitidisuntil recent years. Since 1971, there have been reports of 80 patients in whomNmeningitidiswas isolated from the urethra, cervix, or anal canal.3,4 This article reports