EPIDEMIOLOGY OF PENICILLIN-RESISTANT NEISSERIA-GONORRHOEAE IN FRANKFURT, GERMANY

In the present study 150 Neisseria gonorrhoeae strains from prostitute s in Frankfurt, Germany, were investigated for their in vitro suscepti bility to eight antimicrobial agents by the agar dilution test. While 21.3 % of gonococci were highly resistant to I penicillin (MICs greate r than or equal to 2 mg/l), 49.4 % of the organisms were moderately se nsitive (MICs = 0.125-0.5 mg/l) and only 29.3 % of strains were fully susceptible to penicillin (MICs less than or equal to 0.06 mg/l), No r esistance to other antibiotics tested was observed, with the exception of doxycycline, to which overall resistance was 9.7 %, Genotypic anal ysis of Neisseria gonorrhoeae by the restriction enzyme technique show ed that most penicillin-resistant strains could be grouped into two ma in bacterial clones, whereas penicillin-susceptible isolates displayed a remarkable heterogeneity, This observation suggests that a restrict ed number of resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae strains are likely to spr ead within the prostitute population of Frankfurt, Germany.