Patient information and directions. Communicable Disease Prevention leaflet issued by the Swedish Society for Communicable Disease Prevention and Control.
You have become infected (or are suspected of being infected) with gonorrhoea. Gonorrhoea is caused by bacteria that spread infection through sexual intercourse. The bacteria are found in the urethra, and also in the vagina in women. Gonorrhoea can cause discharge from the urethra and/or vagina, but it is also possible to be infected and not experience any symptoms. The infection is usually easily treated using antibiotics, and if this takes place soon after infection, the risk of complications is very low. It is important that you take the course of antibiotics in the way explained by your doctor. Some bacteria that cause gonorrhoea are insensitive to the usual antibiotic treatment with tablets. In such cases, the antibiotics sometimes have to be given in injections. Women who carry gonorrhoea bacteria without having been given the correct antibiotic treatment can contract an inflammation of the ovaries, with a risk of permanent injury to the fallopian tubes and resulting sterility. The epididymis can become inflamed in men, which in rare cases can lead to sterility. It happens – though it is unusual – that the gonorrhoea bacteria enter the blood, giving rise to general blood poisoning. Since many people have gonorrhoea without knowing it, and this can lead to problems later in life, it is important that the people you have had intercourse with, and who might have infected you – or become infected by you – go to a doctor for information and treatment. Antibiotics are usually given even when infection is only suspected.
Do the following to prevent infection in others:
Sexual intercourse. You may not have intercourse or other close contact with someone else’s genitals until you have been declared free from infection by your doctor. Contact tracing. Under the Swedish Communicable Diseases Act (Smittskyddslagen), you are obliged to take part in contact tracing to try to find any other infected persons. Doctor’s appointments. You must attend the doctor’s appointments that your doctor decides are necessary to check that the disease has been cured.
The disease with which you have been infected is classed as a “public health hazard” under the Communicable Diseases Act (Smittskyddslagen), so you are obliged to follow the directions given by your doctor. If you request, the County Medical Officer must reconsider the directions. Until this reconsideration takes place, you must follow the rules you have been given.
The address of the County Medical Officer (smittskyddsläkaren) in your county council (landsting) is: