This syndrome occurs almost exclusively in children and has a mortality of 10-40 percent. The mainstay for prevention of influenza since the late 1940's has been virus vaccines. Gonorrhea is a common infectious disease that is usually transmitted by intimate sexual contact. It is one of the oldest known human diseases. Gonorrhea has proven difficult to control, and its incidence is rising.
Gonorrhea is now the most common of the reportable infectious diseases in the United States.
The cell surface of the gonococcus has been intensively studied. Nonpilated strains are not pathogenic. In the fallopian tube mucosa model, pili mediate initial attachment to microvilli of nonciliated cells. This initiates a process of endocytosis of the gonococcus which results in transport of the pathogen in vacuoles through these non-ciliated cells into intercellular spaces near the basement membrane. Concurrently, nearby ciliated mucosal cells are damaged and sloughed.