Abstract

Objective: Despite the classification of Neisseria gonorrhoeae as a ‘super bug’ by WHO due to the problem of antimicrobial resistance in gonorrhoea treatment globally. This study assesses recent publications on the prevalence of Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections in Africa. Methods: Systematic review of publications on Neisseria gonorrhoea infections in Africa was done in this study. Five databases; PubMed, Plos One, African Journals, ScienceDirect and google scholar were searched from 2000 to 2020. A total of 41 articles were included considering; authors, years of publication, location, study population among other factors Results: A total of 200 articles were identified from the search engines and only 41 finally passed the eligibility criteria. A total of 15734 participants were screened in the studies from which 1250 only had Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections. The incidence/1000 male subjects infected with N. gonorrhoeae was lower compared to the female. In Nigeria, Ethiopia and Ghana higher prevalence was observed among men compared to women. Highest prevalence was found among age group 21-25 years. Altogether 7.9% of subjects (n = 15,734) were positive for N. gonorrhoeae. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection method was commonest (n =16) followed by unspecified general nucleic acid amplification assays (n = 11). Conclusions: Considering the global rate of antibiotics resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae efforts must be geared towards regional based gonorrhoea control in Africa and elsewhere. Molecular based gold standard techniques complemented with culture where necessary must be adopted for gonorrhoea diagnosis and resistance surveillance.