Gonococcal infection in women with pelvic inflammatory disease in Lusaka, Zambia.

Gonococcal infection is the most common disease in both male and female patients seen at the Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinic at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia. In this study, 100 women admitted to the gynecology wards for management of pelvic inflammatory disease were screened for gonococcal infection using an endocervical culture on modified Thayer-Martin medium. Forty-six of these women had gonococcal infection, including 65% of those women with PID of less than 2 weeks' duration. Because gonorrhea is so common among women with PID, "standard" antibiotic regimens must be reevaluated. We recommend for countries with a high incidence of gonorrhea that initial treatment of PID should include an antibiotic regimen effective for gonococcal infection.