Venereal Diseases Today

Abstract

Clinical ProgressGonorrheaGonorrhea is admittedly the oldest of the five venereal diseases. Medical historians believe that the "issues" (vaginal discharge) mentioned in the 15th chapter of the Book of Leviticus were due to gonorrhea. An Egyptian papyrus dating from 3500 B.C. prescribes plant extracts to alleviate the dysuria of gonorrhea. The disease was known and described by Hippocrates (460 B.C.), but it was Galen, the Greek physician, who called it gonorrhea (from the Greek words for semen and flow), believing the urethral discharge to be an involuntary flow of semen. Rhazes (860–932), the Arabian physician, developed the first sound, . . .