Changing patterns in gonococcal infection in Australia, 1981‐1987 Australian Gonococcal Surveillance Programme

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Abstract
Data from the Australian Gonococcal Surveillance Programme (AGSP) were used to analyse changes in the patterns of gonococcal disease in Australia over the period July 1, 1981 to June 30, 1987. The AGSP is a continuing multicentric study of aspects of gonococcal disease and bases its analyses on laboratory‐confirmed cases of gonorrhoea. The number of gonococcal isolates was highest in 1982‐1983, when 6599 strains were cultured, but it fell in each subsequent year of the study until fewer than half this number was isolated in 1986‐1987. The decrease in the number of isolated strains was proportionately‐greater in men than in women, but in spite of this, the male‐to‐female ratio of disease in Australia remains unacceptably‐high at two to one. In male patients, the decrease in the incidence of rectal isolates from 11.7% of all strains in 1981‐1982 to 1.8% of all strains in 1986‐1987 particularly was noteworthy. In female patients, pharyngeal isolates constituted an increasing proportion of strains and rose from 4.6% of all strains in 1981‐1982 to 9.0% of all strains in 1986‐1987; this has implications for the diagnosis and management of gonococcal disease in this group.