Treatment of gonorrhoea by one oral dose of ampicillin and probenecid combined.

It has been shown (Odegaard, 1962) by sensitivity testing in vitro that the effect of ampicillin on most gonococcal strains is somewhat weaker than that of penicillin G, but the effect on strains less sensitive is better with ampicillin than with penicillin G. Reyn and Bentzon (1968), in support of this, found that the 50 per cent. inhibitory concentrations for the naturally-occurring more sensitive strains were about twice as high with ampicillin as with sodium penicillin G, whereas an opposite tendency was observed in the less sensitive strains. As the great majority of relapses after treatment with penicillin occur in patients infected with gonococci with reduced sensitivity to penicillin, it is therefore possible that ampicillin could be an effective remedy in the treatment of gonorrhoea. This has proved to be the case. Willcox (1963) found a failure rate of 11 9 per cent. in male patients with uncomplicated gonorrhoea treated with a single oral dose of 0 5 g. ampicillin, which proved comparable to the results achieved with single injections of aqueous procaine penicillin. Willcox (1964) also found that the results of ampicillin given orally were somewhat better than those obtained with ampicillin by injection. Alergant (1963), administering ampicillin as a single 1 g. oral dose in the treatment of uncomplicated gonorrhoea in males, had a cure rate of 95 per cent., which was higher than that obtained with any previous oral preparation of penicillin, and he considered ampicillin to be a suitable alternative to penicillin by injection in the treatment of gonorrhoea. Marmell, Sills, Brown, and Prigot (1964) obtained excellent results with ampicillin given in divided doses of 1 g. When Gjessing and Odegaard (1965) treated 500 males with one oral dose of 1 g. ampicillin combined with one simultaneous injection of 600,000 units procaine penicillin the relapse frequency was 3 per cent., whereas 500 patients