Epidemiology of penicillin-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae in Frankfurt, Germany.

In the present study 150 Neisseria gonorrhoeae strains from prostitutes in Frankfurt, Germany, were investigated for their in vitro susceptibility to eight antimicrobial agents by the agar dilution test. While 21.3% of gonococci were highly resistant to penicillin (MICs > or = 2 mg/l), 49.4% of the organisms were moderately sensitive (MICs = 0.125-0.5 mg/l) and only 29.3% of strains were fully susceptible to penicillin (MICs < or = 0.06 mg/l). No resistance to other antibiotics tested was observed, with the exception of doxycycline, to which overall resistance was 9.7%. Genotypic analysis of Neisseria gonorrhoeae by the restriction enzyme technique showed that most penicillin-resistant strains could be grouped into two main bacterial clones, whereas penicillin-susceptible isolates displayed a remarkable heterogeneity. This observation suggests that a restricted number of resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae strains are likely to spread within the prostitute population of Frankfurt, Germany.