ANTIMICROBIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY PATTERN OF NEISSERIA-GONORRHOEAE IN WESTERN AUSTRIA

From January to October 1992 24 Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolates from cl inical specimens were collected at the Federal Public Health Laborator y in Innsbruck (Austria) and screened for resistance to penicillin G, erythromycin, tetracycline, spectinomycin, ceftriaxone, cefuroxime, ci profloxacine, and silver nitrate. Patients originated from the Austria n provinces Salzburg, Tirol, and Vorarlberg, and presented with manife st gonorrhoea. Two of 24 isolates were penicillinase-producing N. gono rrhoeae. Both strains were isolated from men who had just returned fro m Thailand or Kenya. The isolate from Africa was also resistant to tet racycline. Five of 24 infections were acquired abroad, sex tourism bei ng involved in four cases. The antimicrobial resistance pattern found in gonococci in western Austria revealed that topical silver nitrate a nd erythromycin are equally acceptable for use in prophylaxis of neona tal ophthalmia. Penicillin is still the drug of choice in the treatmen t of endemic infections. If gonorrhoea has been acquired abroad, espec ially in Asia or Africa, ceftriaxone, spectinomycin or ciprofloxazine are recommended for therapy.