Gonococcal tonsillitis.

Few of the large numbers of patients exposed to gonococcal infection make spontaneous complaint to the venereologist of a sore throat, and it is therefore possible to overlook infection in this region. Fiumara, Wise, and Many (1967) reported a fully documented case of gonococcal tonsillitis and two probable cases of pharyngitis in homosexual males; and Thatcher, McCraney, Kellogg, and Whaley (1969) isolated Neisseria gonorrhoeae from the pharynx of one patient in the course of a routine physical examination of 505 military personnel in whom there were no symptoms. Cowan (1969), reporting a case of ulceration of the tongue, reviewed the literature of gonococcal infection of the oral cavity and advocated paying closer attention to this area by history-taking, examination, and bacteriological study. The present report describes the case of a man presenting with tonsillitis; his anxiety that the infection might be due to the gonococcus led to the discovery of genital gonorrhoea in his sexual consort with whom he had had only oro-genital contact.