Evaluation of Tetracycline Phosphate Complex and Other Antibiotics in Treatment of Gonorrhea in Males

approximately 4,400 cases of acute gonorrheal urethritis in male patients were treated at the Fulton County Health Department, Atlanta, Ga., on research schedules using 11 different antibiotic prepara¬ tions.This report includes 18 schedules, with the number of patients treated on each schedule ranging from 50 to 505.The pretreatment diagnosis, as well as de¬ termination of treatment failure, was based on clinical evidence of gonorrhea plus a stained smear showing intracellular gram-negative dip¬ lococci resembling Neisseria gonorrhoeae.Be¬ cause of the large number of patients treated at the health department, confirmation by isolation culture and specific sugar fermentation studies was impossible.However, in a sample group of 75 such positive patients confirmation was obtained in 95 percent by specific fluorescent antibody identification or by fluorescent anti¬ body identification plus isolation culture and sugar fermentation.We believe, therefore, that the cases treated and included in this evalu¬ ation represent gonococcal infeetions and do not include a large proportion of nonspecific ure¬ thritis which would respond more readily to the broad-spectrum antibiotics.