Prevalence of <em>Neisseria gonorrhoeae</em> infection in symptomatic and asymptomatic women attending obstetrics and gynecology outpatient department at Lahore general hospital Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

Gonorrhoeae or gonococcal infection is worldwide sexually transmitted bacterial problem caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The current study has been conducted to develop rapid and reliable diagnostics techniques for identification of gonorrhoeae and its incidence in Lahore region of Punjab, Pakistan. Total of 200 endo-cervical discharge samples were collected from symptomatic and asymptomatic patients reported with the history of gynecological problems attending OPD of Lahore general hospital, Lahore Pakistan. Each of the labeled sample was streaked on chocolate agar/Thayer-Martin Medium and incubated for 24-72 hours in the presence of 5% CO2. Grayish-white, opaque, rounded 1-2mm colonies showed gram negative diplococcic in microscopy and revealed positive oxidase and catalase reaction. Results of PCR based analysis on screened colonies showed that 12% of the isolates developed 260bp amplicon size products against ORF1 type specific primer in gel electrophoresis system. Prevalence of N. gonorrhoeae in symptomatic patients of age group ≥30 and ≤30 is 20% and 11% respectively as compared to the asymptomatic patients of age group of ≥30 and ≤30 is 7% and 10% respectively. Similarly, prevalence of married and un-married symptomatic patients was 6% and 36% to that of asymptomatic patients (8% and 3%). The prevalence of N. gonorrhoeae in symptomatic patients of PID and cervicitus is 37.5% and 6.25% and the prevalence of N. gonorrhoeae in asymptomatic patients of PID and cervicitus is 5% and 6% respectively. Culture sensitivity results showed that all isolates were sensitive to Penicillin, Tetracycline, Spectinomycin, Ciprofloxacin and Ceftriaxone.