The ideal laboratory test to detect Neisseria gonorrhoeae (Ng) should be sensitive, specific, easy to use, rapid, and affordable and should provide information about susceptibility to antimicrobial drugs. Currently, such a test is not available and presumably will not be in the near future. Thus, diagnosis of gonococcal infections presently includes application of different techniques to address these requirements. Microscopy may produce rapid results but lacks sensitivity in many cases (except symptomatic urogenital infections in males). Highest sensitivity to detect Ng was shown for nucleic acid amplification technologies (NAATs), which, however, are less specific than culture. In addition, comprehensive analysis of antibiotic resistance is accomplished only by in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility testing of cultured isolates. As a light at the end of the tunnel, new developments of molecular techniques and microfluidic systems represent promising opportunities to design point-of-care tests for rapid detection of Ng with high sensitivity and specificity, and there is reason to hope that such tests may also provide antimicrobial resistance data in the future.

The widespread antimicrobial resistance of Neisseria gonorrhoeae is a serious problem for the treatment and control of gonorrhoea. Many of the previously effective therapeutic agents are no longer viable. Because N. gonorrhoeae infections are not reportable in Germany, only limited data on disease epidemiology and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns are available. The Gonococcal Resistance Network (GORENET) is a surveillance project to monitor trends in the antimicrobial susceptibility of N. gonorrhoeae in Germany in order to guide treatment algorithms and target future prevention strategies. Between April 2014 and December 2015, data on patient-related information were collected from laboratories nationwide, and susceptibility testing was performed on 537 N. gonorrhoeae isolates forwarded from the network laboratories to the Conciliar Laboratory for gonococci. Susceptibility results for cefixime, ceftriaxone, azithromycin, ciprofloxacin and penicillin were defined according to EUCAST 4.0 standards. Percentages, medians and interquartile ranges (IQR) were calculated. Altogether, 90% of isolates were from men. The median age was 32 (IQR 25–44) years for men and 25 (IQR 22–40) years for women (p-value < 0.001). The most frequently tested materials among men were urethral (96.1%) and rectal swabs (1.7%), and among women, it was mainly endocervical and vaginal swabs (84.3%). None of the isolates were resistant to ceftriaxone. Furthermore, 1.9% (in 2014) and 1.4% (in 2015) of the isolates were resistant to cefixime, 11.9% and 9.8% showed resistance against azithromycin, 72.0% and 58.3% were resistant to ciprofloxacin, and 29.1% and 18.8% were resistant to penicillin. Resistance to ceftriaxone was not detected, and the percentage of isolates with resistance to cefixime was low, whereas azithromycin resistance showed high levels during the observation period. The rates of ciprofloxacin resistance and penicillin resistance were very high across Germany. Continued surveillance of antimicrobial drug susceptibilities for N. gonorrhoeae remains highly important to ensure efficient disease management.

Confidence in any diagnostic and antimicrobial susceptibility testing data is provided by appropriate and regular quality assurance (QA) procedures. In Europe, the European Gonococcal Antimicrobial Susceptibility Programme (Euro-GASP) has been monitoring the antimicrobial susceptibility in Neisseria gonorrhoeae since 2004. Euro-GASP includes an external quality assessment (EQA) scheme as an essential component for a quality-assured laboratory-based surveillance programme. Participation in the EQA scheme enables any problems with the performed antimicrobial susceptibility testing to be identified and addressed, feeds into the curricula of laboratory training organised by the Euro-GASP network, and assesses the capacity of individual laboratories to detect emerging new, rare and increasing antimicrobial resistance phenotypes. Participant performance in the Euro-GASP EQA scheme over a 10 year period (2007 to 2016, no EQA in 2013) was evaluated. Antimicrobial susceptibility category and MIC results from the first 5 years (2007–2011) of the Euro-GASP EQA were compared with the latter 5 years (2012–2016). These time periods were selected to assess the impact of the 2012 European Union case definitions for the reporting of antimicrobial susceptibility. Antimicrobial susceptibility category agreement in each year was ≥91%. Discrepancies in susceptibility categories were generally because the MICs for EQA panel isolates were on or very close to the susceptibility or resistance breakpoints. A high proportion of isolates tested over the 10 years were within one (≥90%) or two (≥97%) MIC log2 dilutions of the modal MIC, respectively. The most common method used was Etest on GC agar base. There was a shift to using breakpoints published by the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) in the latter 5 years, however overall impact on the validity of results was limited, as the percentage categorical agreement and MIC concordance changed very little between the two five-year periods. The high level of comparability of results in this EQA scheme indicates that high quality data are produced by the Euro-GASP participants and gives confidence in susceptibility and resistance data generated by laboratories performing decentralised testing.

Summary: The familyPoxviridaecurrently comprises 22 genera that infect vertebrates. Of these, members of theOrtho‐,Para‐,Mollusci‐andYatapoxvirusgenera have been associated with human diseases of high clinical relevance in dermatology. Historically, smallpox had been a notorious health threat until it was declared eradicated by the World Health Organization in 1979. Today, dermatologists are confronted with a variety of poxviral infections, such as farmyard pox, which occurs as a zoonotic infection after contact with animals. In the tropics, tanapox or vaccinia may be in the differential diagnosis as neglected tropical dermatoses. Molluscum contagiosum virus infection accounts for significant disease burden worldwide and is classified as a sexually transmitted infection in certain scenarios. Recently, mpox (monkeypox) has emerged as a public health emergency of international concern, requiring rapid recognition and appropriate management by dermatologists and infectious disease specialists. Advances and new insights into the epidemiology, diagnosis, clinical manifestations and complications, treatment, and prevention of poxviral infections require a high level of expertise and interdisciplinary skills from healthcare professionals linking virology, infectious diseases, and dermatology. This CME article provides a systematic overview and update to assist the practicing dermatologist in the identification, differential diagnosis, and management of poxviral infections.