A 33-year-old sexually active woman, a week after her menstrual period, develops a painful, swollen right knee. The most likely causative organism has which of the following characteristics?
This is the history of septic ahritis due to N. gonorrhoea. Gonococcal infections can disseminate through blood and can cause septic ahritis. Gonococcus is a gram-negative diplococcus, catalase, and oxidase positive, fermenting only glucose. It causes the sexually transmitted genitourinary infection gonorrhea as well as other forms of gonococcal disease including disseminated gonococcemia, septic ahritis, and gonococcal ophthalmia neonatorum. It is oxidase positive and aerobic, and it survives within neutrophils. Ref: Harrison 20th edition pg 1456
Cannot make ATP
Both hyphae and spores
No true cell wall
Can live within neutrophils
Sexually transmitted diseases