Where There Is No Doctor 2011 237
In a man, the first signs begin 2 to 5 days (or up to 3 weeks or more) after sexual
contact with an infected person. In a woman, signs may not show up for weeks or
months. But a person who does not show any signs can still give the disease to
someone else, starting a few days after becoming infected.
Treatment:
♦ In the past, gonorrhea was usually treated with penicillin. But now in many
areas the disease has become resistant to penicillin, so other antibiotics must
be used. It is best to seek local advice about which medicines are effective,
available, and affordable in your area. Medicines used to treat gonorrhea and
chlamydia are listed on p. 359. If the drip and pain have not gone away in
2 or 3 days after trying a treatment, the gonorrhea could be resistant to the
medicine, or the person could have chlamydia.
♦ If a woman has gonorrhea or chlamydia and also has fever and pain in the
lower belly, she may have pelvic inflammatory disease (see p. 243).
♦ Everyone who has had sex with a person known to have gonorrhea or
chlamydia should also be treated, especially wives of men who are infected.
Even if the wife shows no signs, she is probably infected. If she is not treated at
the same time, she will give the disease back to her husband again.
♦ Protect the eyes of all newborn babies from chlamydia and especially
gonorrhea, which can cause blindness (see p. 221).
CAUTION: A person with gonorrhea or chlamydia may also have syphilis without
knowing it. Sometimes it is best to go ahead and give the full treatment for syphilis,
because the gonorrhea or chlamydia treatment may prevent the first syphilis
symptoms, but may not cure the disease.
For prevention of these and other sexually transmitted infections, see p. 239.
Syphilis
Syphilis is a common and dangerous infection that is
spread from person to person through sexual contact.
Signs:
• The first sign is usually a sore, called a chancre.
It appears 2 to 5 weeks after sexual contact with a
person who has syphilis. The chancre may look like
a pimple, a blister, or an open sore. It usually
appears in the genital area of the man or woman (or
less commonly on the lips, fingers, anus, or mouth).
This sore is full of germs, which are easily passed
on to another person. The sore is usually painless, and if
it is inside the vagina, a woman may not know she has
it but it can easily spread to other people. If the sore is
painful, it may be chancroid (see p. 403).
• The sore lasts only a few days and then goes away by itself
without treatment. But the disease continues spreading
through the body.