Preventive antibiotics may help curb the STI epidemic, experts say
Research at International HIV Conference finds taking an antibiotic, doxycycline, after sex, or smaller dose daily, reduces sexually transmitted infections (STIs risk.
Instead of simply treating sexually transmitted infections with antibiotics, a new public-health movement seeks to use one such medication to prevent STIs in the first place. Promising research into variations on this method has raised hopes, but also concerns about whether this method might also contribute to another public health crisis: drug-resistant infections.
One thing is clear: The nation is in dire need of game changers to battle the STI epidemic, as gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis have largely soared during the past decade.
Syphilis, which public health experts thought as recently as the 1990s could possibly be eliminated, has seen especially worrying increases among pregnant women in particular. Congenital syphilis — when a mother passes the infection to her baby — can be fatal or lead to severe birth defects.
Enter doxycycline: a common, well-tolerated antibiotic long used for multiple purposes, including treating acne.
Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidelines for the use of doxycycline after sex — as post-exposure prophylaxis, or doxyPEP — to lower the risk of bacterial STIs among gay and bisexual men and transgender women. The recommendation was limited to this population because a recent clinical trial of doxyPEP among cisgender women failed to demonstrate any benefit. Men who have sex with men also have a disproportionately high STI rate.
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