Beta-lactamase-positive gonorrhoea was rather sporadic in Poland. In spring 1988 a marked rise was observed in the proportion of therapeutic failures in the treatment of gonorrhoea with procaine penicillin (4.8 million u) with probenecid among patient treated in the outpatient clinic of the Venereology Institute in Warsaw. The cause was infection with beta-lactamase producing gonococci. Up to June 1989 beta-lactamase production ability was tested in gonococci cultured from 415 patients (363 men and 52 women) with positive results in 73 cases (61 men and 11 women) that is in 18%. Most (85%) patients were treated with spectinomycin (2 g intramuscularly in men and 4 g in women in one dose) with cure in all cases. Treatment with tetracycline (2 g daily for 7 days) given to 12 patients failed in 2 cases. These results, if confirmed in other parts of the country, will cause the necessity of revision of the presently accepted indications for gonorrhoea treatment with penicillin with probenecid as the basic method.