venereal disease

A false-colour electron micrograph of the Neisseria gonorrhoeae virus. This bacterium is the cause of the common sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea which operates through inflammation of the genito-urinary tract. The condition is treated with antibiotics, although in ever-increasing doses to combat resistant strains.

Any disease mainly transmitted by sexual contact, although commonly the term is used specifically for gonorrhoea and syphilis, both occurring worldwide, and chancroid (‘soft sore’) and lymphogranuloma venerum, seen mostly in the tropics. The term sexually transmitted disease (STD) is more often used to encompass a growing list of conditions passed on primarily, but not exclusively, by sexual contact.