Decrease in syphilis diagnoses among gay men most likely linked to preventive antibiotic use
A new proven protocol in which doxycycline is used to prevent sexually transmitted infections — called doxyPEP — has been an apparent sleeper hit among gay and bisexual men.
The public health workforce tasked with fighting what has been a long-losing battle against sexually transmitted infections now finds itself confronted with a new, unfamiliar outlook: hope.
After having surged to record levels practically every year this century, overall diagnoses of the three top bacterial STIs have crested since the Covid pandemic. From 2022 to 2023, total diagnoses decreased by 2%, to 2.46 million new cases, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention STI surveillance report published Tuesday.
And importantly, diagnoses of primary and secondary syphilis — the most infectious stages of the infection — dropped 10% last year, to 53,000 cases.
The decline was driven by a 13% drop in such syphilis diagnoses among gay and bisexual men, who are about 2% of the adult population but have historically accounted for nearly half of such cases.
STIs also spread disproportionately among young people and racial minorities. Just under half of the top three bacterial STIs were diagnosed among 15 to 24 year olds last year. Nearly one-third of cases were among Blacks, who are 13% of the population.
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