Gonorrhea is an infectious venereal disease caused by a specific microorganism - gonococcus. Gonococcal infection is named gonorrhea after the first letters of the Latin name of the pathogen - Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The disease is a sexually transmitted infection. The pathogen is transmitted through sexual intercourse, through common hygiene items and household furnishings, as well as from a sick mother to the fetus during pregnancy and childbirth.
The latent period for gonorrhea lasts from 3 to 28 days. However, it is characteristic that quite often a gonorrhea carrier cannot determine the moment of infection or considers it to be casual sexual contact for several years. This is usually due to the fact that the patient does not regularly undergo preventive examinations with a venereologist. The symptoms of gonorrhea are not obvious, and symptoms may be subtle and appear several weeks after exposure. In men, urethritis is most often observed, but other organs, tissues and lymph nodes outside the urethra are also affected.