Neisseria is named after Albert Ludwig Sigesmund Neisser, a German physician who discovered Neisseria gonorrhoeae in 1879. Gonorrhea comes from the Greek gonos, meaning “seed,” and rhoe, “flow.

When did gonorrhea first appear?

Discovery of the infection and its cause

The exact time when gonorrhea started cannot be ascertained. Earliest records of the disease are found from 1161 when the English parliament enacted a law to ensure that the spread of the infection is decreased and curbed.

When did syphilis first appear?

The first known epidemic of syphilis occurred during the Renaissance in 1495. Initially its plague broke out among the army of Charles the VIII after the French king invaded Naples. It then proceeded to devastate Europe, said researcher George Armelagos, a skeletal biologist at Emory University in Atlanta.