Epidemiology of male urethritis in Nigeria

One thousand and seventy-two symptomatic male cases of urethritis were investigated. Of these, 643 (60%) had gonococcal aetiology; 579 (54%) of all cases were in the 21-30-year age group while only 21 (2%) were above 50 years and 654 patients were married, 418 unmarried. Traders, civil servants and students accounted for 33.8, 29.5 and 26.7% of cases respectively. Sokoto state of Nigeria was less affected with the disease than other areas. Three hundred and eighty-six patients gave a history of previous therapy and only 183 of these yielded gonococci. Seventy-two per cent of gonococcal isolates were penicillinase producers. It appeared that the social, cultural and religious beliefs of the local population had tremendous influence on the incidence of the disease.