Treatment and partner notification outcomes for gonorrhoea: effect of ethnicity and gender

Abstract

We assessed if gender and ethnicity were associated with differences in the number of patients satisfactorily treated and number of partners successfully treated for genital gonococcal infection by reviewing 400 cases. There were no differences in the rates of satisfactory treatment of gonorrhoea between men and women and the different ethnic groups. There was no difference in satisfactory partner treatment rates by ethnic origin; however, men were less likely to have their contacts satisfactorily treated within 28 days of diagnosis (odds ratio=0.05, 95% confidence interval 0.3–0.7). This inequality may lead to difficulties in reducing the number of new gonorrhoea cases. More research is needed to find out why men behave differently from women regarding partner notification for genital gonorrhoea infection.