A "traditionally ignored" form of venereal disease is on the increase among Massachusetts college students, Dr. Nicholas J. Fiumara, director of the Massachusetts division of communicable diseases said yesterday.

Dr. Warren E. Wacker, director of University Health Services (UHS), said that UHS treats "a ballpark figure of 100 cases a year" of non-gonococcal urethritis (NGU). "We probably see more of it than any other venereal disease but I haven't noticed any great increase lately," Wacker said.

Cases of NGU, one of 14 sexually-transmitted diseases, outnumber cases of gonorrhea or syphillis statewide, Penney said.

The disease, which resembles the symptoms of gonorrhea, has "been around a long time," Fiumara said. "We just never recognized it in the past."

Even today, the disease is diagnosed "by elimination," Elizabeth Penney, the public health nursing advisor specialist in the state's venereal disease program, said yesterday. "If we see a male with a discharge and we culture it and it's not gonorrhea, then we treat for NGU," she explained.

The NGU symptoms in the male are not as severe as those of gonorrhea. "The discharge is watery and it smarts, but doesn't burn as it does with gonorrhea," Fiumara said.

While female carriers usually do not exhibit symptoms, according to Wacker, at least one of the forms of NGU may cause inflammatory pelvic disease which can lead to sterility. "Doctors have to recognize this disease as sexually transmitted and realize that it poses a real danger to the female," Dr. William W. McCormack, professor of Medicine, said yesterday.

Treating the female partner of the male with NGU is also necessary to keep the disease from recurring. "It is really a waste of effort if you don't treat the gals too," Fiumara said.

"It's unusual that the disease is spreading while other venereal diseases are decreasing," Fiumara said. "It may be that it is just being reported more," he added.