If it is not known whether the mother is infected, it may be better not to give the drugs routinely. It could not be clearly established from the medical literature whether the risk to infants from no treatment was higher or lower than the risk from receiving a prophylactic agent. Many parents at low risk for gonorrhea prefer that no prophylaxis be given to their newborns. Moreover, Great Britain, which used no eye prophylactic agents for newborns for the 25 years preceding the study, has rates of neonatal conjunctivitis similar to those in the United States. For these reasons, the Washington State Board of Health granted this study an exemption from the State law to allow the investigators to evaluate scientifically the risks and benefits of no treatment.