Abstract: Objective To study the susceptibility of Neisseria gonorrhoeae to antibiotic agents from 1988 to 2002 in Shanghai. Methods The clinical isolates from patients with gonorrhea were collected and tested for their susceptibility to five antibiotics. Agarose-dilution-method was used to detect minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of anti-microbial agents including penicillin, tetracycline, spectinomycin, ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone, and penicillinase producing Neisseria gonorrhoeae (PPNG) were tested with acidometric method. Results Susceptible strains to penicillin decreased from 11.28% in 1988 to 0 in 2002, MIC50 and MIC90 increased 8 and 4 times, respectively, the resistant rate and proportion of PPNG were 94.29% and 50.95%, respectively in 2002. The strains of high resistance to tetracycline increased from 0 in 1995 to 20.95% in 2002. The susceptible strains to ceftriaxone decreased from 100% in 1995 to 23.80% in 2002. The susceptibility to ciprofloxacin decreased significantly and resistant rate reached 99.05% in 2002. However, these strains were kept highly susceptible to spectionmycin. Concerning the multi-drug resistance, we found that the strains resistant to penicillin, ciprofloxacin and tetracycline simultaneously increased from 20.87% in 2001 to 23.30% in 2002, those resistant to both penicillin and ciprofloxacin reached to 70% in the past 2 years. Conclusions In Shanghai the resistant rates of Neisseria gonorrhoeae to antibiotics increased year by year in the past 15 years. The study indicates that spectinomycin and ceftriaxone should be the first choice for the treatment of gonorrhea at present and new sensitive antibiotic should be developed for the treatment of gonorrhea.

Key words: Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Microbial sensitivity tests, Penicillins, Tetracycline, Ceftriaxone, Spectinomycin, Ciprofloxacin