Frontline STI Screening Starts with Primary Care.

In this supplement to Family Practice, Heather M. Territo, MD, and Gale R. Burstein, MD, MPH discuss how primary care physicians play an essential role in screening for STIs in young patients.

Trichomonas Infection Rates in Males Presenting to the Emergency Department for Sexually Transmitted Infections.

Background: Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Overall prevalence is reported to be 3.1%, with rates approaching 12.

Prescription Opioid Dependence in Western New York: Using Data Analytics to Find an Answer to the Opioid Epidemic.

Opioid dependence and overdose is on the rise. One indicator is the increasing trends of prescription buprenorphine use among patient on chronic pain medication. In addition to the New York State Department of Health's prescription drug monitoring programs and training programs for providers and first responders to detect and treat a narcotic overdose, further examination of the population may provide important information for multidisciplinary interventions to address this epidemic.

Sexual and Reproductive Health Care Services in the Pediatric Setting.

Pediatricians are an important source of health care for adolescents and young adults and can play a significant role in addressing their patients' sexual and reproductive health needs, including preventing unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, and promoting healthy relationships. STIs, HIV, and unintended pregnancy are all preventable health outcomes with potentially serious permanent sequelae; the highest rates of STIs, HIV, and unintended pregnancy are reported among adolescents and young adults. Office visits present opportunities to provide comprehensive education and health care services to adolescents and young adults to prevent STIs, HIV, and unintended pregnancies.

Adolescent Sexuality: Updates to the Sexually Transmitted Infection Guidelines.

Adolescents are at high risk for acquisition and transmission of sexually transmitted infections (STI) secondary to both cognitive and biological susceptibility. The prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of STIs are a critical part of adolescent health care. This article discusses the most common bacterial, parasitic, and viral STIs encountered in this age group with an emphasis on new guidelines for screening and management.

A New Strategy for Trichomonas Testing Female Adolescents in the Emergency Department.

Study Objective: Sensitive trichomonas diagnostic testing has become available, including nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) and a rapid antigen test. The study purpose was to determine if adding sensitive trichomonas testing to routine female sexually transmitted infection (STI) evaluations would increase trichomonas identification and treatment.

Design: Two study time periods.

Snowstorm-Related Mortality - Erie County, New York, November 2014.

During November 18-21, 2014, a narrow band of central and southern Erie County in New York received unprecedented amounts of snowfall. The duration of the storm and amount of snowfall rapidly exceeded weather service forecasts, with some areas receiving 60-84 inches (1.5-2.

Diagnosis and treatment of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and trichomonas in adolescents.

CME EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: 1.Determine and discuss issues surrounding consent, confidentiality, and billing for sexually transmitted infection (STI) care delivery in the adolescent population.2.

Expedited partner therapy for sexually transmitted infections.

Purpose Of Review: In 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Expedited Partner Therapy (EPT) as a clinical option for assuring treatment of sex partners of persons infected with sexually transmitted infections. In this review, we provide an update on research, evaluation and efforts to increase EPT coverage. We also attend to EPT for gonorrhea in the context of antimicrobial resistance.

Delivering adolescent preventive services in an office setting.

Adolescence has long been recognized as a vulnerable period. Although several major medical professional organizations have published adolescent preventive care guidelines, regional and national surveys of youth, providers, and medical records all suggest many gaps exist in the delivery of recommended preventive services. In this article, we review the development of adolescent preventive health guidelines, describe current rates of preventive health screening and counseling, and explore barriers to delivery of preventive care for this age group.

Partner notification in the clinician's office: patient health, public health and interventions.

Purpose Of Review: Partner notification is an essential element of sexually transmitted disease infection control. Patients may be interviewed by public health staff, followed by public health staff notification of those partners (provider referral), or they receive some form of instruction to notify and refer their own partners (patient referral). In this review, we review partner notification and current research and programmatic activity.

The adolescent sexual health visit.

Addressing sexual health, screening, and counseling to prevent sequelae of risky sexual behavior are essential components of the adolescent visit to the gynecologist. Discussing sexuality and taking a sexual history may cause feelings of discomfort for the provider and adolescent patient alike. Taking the time to build rapport and trust and the guarantee of confidentiality are key to engaging adolescent patients to discuss their personal health concerns with their provider.

Adolescent immunizations and other clinical preventive services: a needle and a hook?

Advances in technology have led to development of new vaccines for adolescents, but these vaccines will be added to a crowded schedule of recommended adolescent clinical preventive services. We reviewed adolescent clinical preventive health care guidelines and patterns of adolescent clinical preventive service delivery and assessed how new adolescent vaccines might affect health care visits and the delivery of other clinical preventive services. Our analysis suggests that new adolescent immunization recommendations are likely to improve adolescent health, both as a "needle" and a "hook.

Expedited partner therapy for adolescents diagnosed with gonorrhea or chlamydia: a review and commentary.

Management of sex partners is a cornerstone of sexually transmitted infection control in the United States. Face-to-face investigation and notification of exposure of sex partners by public health professionals seems to be the most effective method of ensuring appropriate partner management. However, resources rarely permit such intensive partner management for gonorrhea and chlamydial infection.

Rapid HIV antibody testing in the New York State Anonymous HIV Counseling and Testing Program: experience from the field.

Objectives: To assess rapid and conventional HIV test use, client satisfaction, and counselors' comfort.

Methods: At 61 HIV test sites in New York State, we compared HIV test use during the first 6 months of rapid testing in 2003 with the same time period in 2002. We administered surveys to clients at each site during the first 30 days of rapid testing and to counselors before and after training and after 12 weeks of using rapid tests in the field.

A rapid review of rapid HIV antibody tests.

Rapid HIV antibody tests recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration can help reduce unrecognized infections by improving access to testing in both clinical and nonclinical settings and increase the proportion of those tested who learn their results. Four rapid HIV antibody tests are now available in the United States; two are approved for use at point-of-care sites outside a traditional laboratory. All four tests are interpreted visually.

Chlamydia screening in a Health Plan before and after a national performance measure introduction.

Objective: To evaluate chlamydia-screening policies, testing practices, and the proportion testing positive in response to the new Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) chlamydia-screening performance measure in a large commercial health plan.

Methods: We interviewed health plan specialty departmental chiefs to describe interventions used to increase chlamydia screening and examined electronic medical records of 15- to 26-year-old female patients--37,438 from 1998 to 1999 and 37,237 from 2000 to 2001--who were classified as sexually active by HEDIS specifications to estimate chlamydia testing and positive tests 2 years before and after the HEDIS measure introduction.

Results: In January 2000, the obstetrics and gynecology department instituted a policy to collect chlamydia tests at the time of routine Pap tests on all females 26 years old or younger by placing chlamydia swabs next to Pap test collection materials.

An overview of sexually transmitted infections among adolescents.

Half of all United States high school students are sexually experienced. Female adolescents bear the highest rates of many STIs. Many adolescents infected with STIs report no symptoms suggestive of their infections.