The very wide discrepancy between the numbers of men and women being diagnosed with gonorrhoea, even after discounting homosexually transmitted cases,1 suggests either promiscuous behaviour on the part of at least a reasonable proportion of the affected women, or a relative failure of infected women to attend GUM clinics and obtain treatment.

Whatever the cause, when coupled with the high infectivity of gonorrhoea 2 and the socio-economic vulnerability of those most at risk, it magnifies the likelihood of a constant pool of infection among the relatively deprived and black ethnic populations.