Gonococcal sepsis in a 32-year-old female: a case report

Neisseria gonorrhoeae is a Gram-negative bacterium which affects the urethra, throat, rectum and cervix of patients and often associated with sexually transmitted infections. The global epidemiology of the disease is not well characterised especially in resource constraint countries due to poor diagnostic capacity and inefficient reporting systems. Although important, little is known about the propensity of this bacterium to cause sepsis in immunocompetent individuals.

A 32-year-old female presented with fever and generalised malaise to a rural hospital in Ghana. The patient had previously been diagnosed as having enteric fever from a neighbouring health facility. Blood and urine samples were collected from the patient and cultured using standard microbiological and molecular techniques. Neisseria gonorrhoeae was isolated from the blood which was resistant to penicillin, ciprofloxacin and cotrimoxazole. The patient recovered following ceftriaxone and azithromycin treatment.

This case highlights the importance of N. gonorrhoeae in causing sepsis and emphasises the need for blood culture investigation in diagnosis of patients presenting with fever.