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The diagnosis: The mother immediately brought her child to their family doctor, who found that the remaining material from the lab dish contained Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacteria that causes gonorrhea. (The report didn't note whether the boy experienced any symptoms of the infection, and often, gonorrhea infections of the mouth and throat cause no symptoms. The treatment: The doctors treated the infection following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) guidelines at the time. This involved giving the patient intermuscular injections of an antibiotic called procaine penicillin G. (Nowadays, penicillin G is not recommended as a therapy for gonorrhea, in part because many strains of N. gonorrhoea circulating in the U.S. are now resistant to the drug's effects.)