Antibiotic After Sex Slashed STD Rates in Study

Medically reviewed by Medicine.com.

By Robin Foster HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, March 5, 2024 — Only one dose of the antibiotic doxycycline taken after intercourse halved the variety of chlamydia and syphilis circumstances in San Francisco, promising new analysis reveals.

Within the examine, homosexual and bisexual males and transgender ladies who had a historical past of sexually transmitted infections or a number of intercourse companions got a provide of the antibiotic and requested to take two 100-milligram drugs inside 72 hours of unprotected intercourse. The technique is called doxy-PEP.

What occurred?

In outcomes offered Monday on the Convention on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Denver, new circumstances of chlamydia and early syphilis — however not gonorrhea — dropped drastically over the course of a yr.

“It’s not refined, it is vitally quick and we’re seeing the start of it, not the top,” researcher Dr. Hyman Scott, a medical director on the San Francisco Division of Public Well being, informed the New York Occasions. “That is what we wish for STI prevention.”

Syphilis circumstances have reached their highest price since 1950, the CDC reported in January. Left untreated, syphilis damages the center and mind and might trigger blindness, deafness and paralysis. In the meantime, chlamydia an infection charges plateaued nationwide in 2022, however there have been nonetheless practically 1.7 million circumstances.

“These information are merely numbers of STI circumstances at completely different time factors, however make me really feel hopeful that doxy-PEP might be able to cut back STIs at a inhabitants degree,” Dr. Ina Park, an STI knowledgeable on the College of California, San Francisco, informed the Occasions. She was not concerned within the examine.

Thus far, the proof helps the case for doxycycline use solely in homosexual and bisexual males and transgender ladies.

However, “the vast majority of STIs in the US happen in cisgender ladies,” Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of the CDC’s Nationwide Middle for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, informed the Occasions.

“Research of whether or not doxy-PEP works in cisgender ladies needs to be carried out as rapidly as attainable,” he pressured.

After releasing draft pointers for doxy-PEP in October, the CDC plans to challenge its closing suggestions within the subsequent few months, Mermin famous.

The San Francisco Division of Public Well being had already begun recommending doxy-PEP for homosexual and bisexual males and transgender ladies a yr earlier than the company’s draft pointers had been printed.

Within the newest analysis, metropolis officers tracked month-to-month charges of chlamydia, gonorrhea and early syphilis earlier than and after the introduction of doxy-PEP in November 2022. In addition they in contrast the numbers with the speed of STI infections in cisgender ladies.

Over a 13-month interval, new circumstances of chlamydia and early syphilis throughout town dropped by 50 p.c, in contrast with the anticipated numbers.

Sadly, circumstances of chlamydia in cisgender ladies steadily elevated.

“The truth that we didn’t see declines in STIs in different populations not really helpful for doxy, particularly cis ladies, strengthens the conclusion that the decline in chlamydia and early syphilis circumstances is expounded to [the] doxy-PEP rollout,” stated researcher Madeline Sankaran, an epidemiologist on the San Francisco Division of Public Well being who offered the findings, the Occasions reported.

Whereas the outcomes are promising, Mermin cautioned that they might have been skewed by the 2022 outbreak of mpox, throughout which high-risk teams curtailed their sexual exercise.

Sources

March 4, 2024, summary, Convention on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, Denver New York Occasions

Disclaimer: Statistical information in medical articles present normal traits and don’t pertain to people. Particular person components can fluctuate drastically. All the time search personalised medical recommendation for particular person healthcare selections.

Posted March 2024