GONORRHEA DEFINITION

Many people view gonorrhoea as an old-fashioned venereal disease, one that's been almost wiped out by modern antibiotics. But in reality, gonorrhoea (known informally as the clap, the drip, or GC) is still one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in Ireland. Transmitted by a bacterium shaped like a coffee bean, it's highly contagious and can enter the body through any opening -- mouth, vagina, or rectum. The bacteria may cause an infection anywhere in the body, although a woman's cervix or a man's urethra (the tube that urine travels through) are usually the first to be infected. The infection can then spread farther up the reproductive tract and into the bloodstream, where it may cause serious health problems that can include arthritis, meningitis, sterility, or death. However, this does not happen often and most people who contract gonorrhoea usually have local symtoms. About 100 Irish people per year are diagnosed with gonorrhoea, but experts believe the real number of newly infected is higher.