Single-dose therapy of anogenital and pharyngeal gonorrhoea with ciprofloxacin

A single dose of ciprofloxacin, 250 mg by mouth, was used in an open study to treat pharyngeal or rectal gonorrhoea or both in 64 patients (32 men and 32 women). The study also included 151 men with urethral gonorrhoea and 53 women with cervical or urethral gonorrhoea. Ciprofloxacin cured 63 (98%) patients with pharyngeal or rectal gonorrhoea (including 5 patients with penicillinase-producing Neisseria gonorrhoeae; PPNG), 147 (97%) men with urethral gonorrhoea (including 8 with PPNG) and 52 (98%) women with cervical or urethral gonorrhoea. All the isolates of N. gonorrhoeae were sensitive to 0.03 mg/l of ciprofloxacin. Five of the 6 patients with treatment failure were subsequently cured by a single oral dose of ciprofloxacin 250 mg. None of the patients reported an adverse reaction. Ciprofloxacin 250 mg as a single oral dose is effective and safe in treating patients with pharyngeal or rectal gonorrhoea, including those with PPNG strains.