Over the past two decades, cases of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) due to syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia have been rising in the United States, disproportionately among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM), as well as racial and ethnic minorities of all genders. In this review, we address updates about the evidence on doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis (doxy-PEP) for prevention of bacterial STIs, including efficacy, safety, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), acceptability, modeling population impact, and evolving guidelines for use. Equitable implementation of doxy-PEP will require evaluation of who is offered and initiates it, understanding patterns of use and longer-term STI incidence and AMR, provider training, and tailored community education.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Doxycycline postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) has been shown to prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among cisgender men and transgender women, but data from trials involving cisgender women are lacking.
Methods: We conducted a randomized, open-label trial comparing doxycycline PEP (doxycycline hyclate, 200 mg taken within 72 hours after condomless sex) with standard care among Kenyan women 18 to 30 years of age who were receiving preexposure prophylaxis against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The primary end point was any incident infection with , , or .
Purpose Of Review: This article reviews current efforts to control bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) users and outlines the opportunities and challenges to controlling STIs within HIV PrEP programs.
Recent Findings: The incidence of STIs continues to rise globally especially among HIV PrEP users, with an estimated 1 in 4 PrEP users having a curable bacterial STI. STIs and HIV comprise a syndemic needing dual interventions.
Introduction: The global incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) has been rapidly increasing over the past decade, with more than one million curable STIs being acquired daily. Young women in sub-Saharan Africa have a high prevalence and incidence of both curable STIs and HIV. The use of doxycycline as a prophylaxis to prevent STIs is promising; however, clinical trials, to date, have only been conducted among men who have sex with men (MSM) in high-income settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved for malaria, systemic and chronic discoid lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis. Because HCQ has a proposed multimodal mechanism of action and a well-established safety profile, it is often investigated as a repurposed therapeutic for a range of indications. There is a large degree of uncertainty in HCQ pharmacokinetic (PK) parameters which complicates dose selection when investigating its use in new disease states.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUsing archived Neisseria gonorrhoeae samples from 2008 to 2012, the prevalence of tet (M) genemediating high-level tetracycline resistance in N. gonorrhoeae was 96% among 50 Kenyan women. Determining the local and national prevalence of gonococcal tetracycline resistance and surveillance of gonococcal antimicrobial resistance can inform the implementation of doxycycline postexposure prophylaxis for STI prevention.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTwo randomized controlled trials demonstrated no clinical benefit of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) for either postexposure prophylaxis or early treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Using data from these studies, we calculated the time-weighted average change from baseline SARS-CoV-2 viral load and demonstrated that HCQ did not affect viral clearance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Women in Africa face disproportionate risk of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) acquisition, accounting for more than half of new infections in Africa and similarly face a disproportionate burden of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Very high STI prevalence is being observed globally, especially among people taking pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention. Doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis (dPEP) has been proposed as an STI prevention strategy to reduce chlamydia, syphilis, and possibly gonorrhea, and trials are ongoing among cisgender men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women who are taking PrEP in high-income settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has challenged researchers performing clinical trials to develop innovative approaches to mitigate infectious risk while maintaining rigorous safety monitoring.
Methods: In this report we describe the implementation of a novel exclusively remote randomized clinical trial (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04354428) of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin for the treatment of the SARS-CoV-2-mediated COVID-19 disease which included cardiovascular safety monitoring.
Background: Infective endocarditis (IE) remains highly morbid, but few studies have evaluated factors associated with IE mortality. We examined correlates of 90-day mortality among people who inject drugs (PWID) and people who do not inject drugs (non-PWID).
Methods: We queried the electronic medical record for cases of IE among adults ≥18 years of age at 2 academic medical centers in Seattle, Washington, from 1 January 2014 to 31 July 2019.
Studies of infective endocarditis (IE) have relied on International Classification of Disease (ICD) codes to identify cases, a method vulnerable to misclassification. Clinical narrative data could offer greater accuracy and richness to cohort identification. We evaluated two algorithms: 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has revolutionized HIV prevention, but PrEP does not protect against other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Rates of STIs are rising worldwide, with notably high incidences among PrEP-using men who have sex with men in high-income countries; in low-income and middle-income countries, data are sparse, but results from a limited number of studies among African women initiating and taking PrEP have shown high STI prevalence and incidence. Efforts aimed at markedly reducing HIV in populations worldwide include a major focus on increasing PrEP use, along with improving HIV testing and treatment in order to eliminate HIV transmission.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis cohort study evaluates the association between use of a community center primary care clinic and subsequent nonemergent emergency department (ED) visits by unhoused women who exchange sex and inject drugs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Treatment options for outpatients with COVID-19 could reduce morbidity and prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission.
Methods: In this randomized, double-blind, three-arm (1:1:1) placebo-equivalent controlled trial conducted remotely throughout the United States, adult outpatients with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection were recruited. Participants were randomly assigned to receive hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) (400 mg BID x1day, followed by 200 mg BID x9days) with or without azithromycin (AZ) (500 mg, then 250 mg daily x4days) or placebo-equivalent (ascorbic acid (HCQ) and folic acid (AZ)), stratified by risk for progression to severe COVID-19 (high-risk vs.
This is a review of the first 50 patients attending a colocated continuity clinic with harm reduction services to women experiencing homelessness in north Seattle. Among those tested, patients had high rates of curable sexually transmitted infections (44%), injection opioid use (36%), transactional sex (69%), unintended pregnancy (10%), and human immunodeficiency virus infections (10%).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLancet Infect Dis
September 2019
These recommendations and resources can help make HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis an essential part of your work.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTransplant tourism, which is the practice of traveling to other countries for transplant, continues to be a major problem worldwide. We describe a patient who traveled to Pakistan and underwent commercial kidney transplant. He developed life-threatening infections from New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase-1-producing Enterobacter cloacae and Rhizopus oryzae, resulting in a necrotizing kidney allograft infection and subsequent external iliac artery rupture.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe prevalence of high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) has been reported to be three times higher in female sex workers (FSWs) in Callao, Peru than in the general population of women in Peru. Prevalence of HR-HPV among male clients has not yet been reported. A total of 150 men soliciting intercourse in sex work venues submitted questionnaires, samples for sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing, and self-collected penile samples prior to and following intercourse for HPV genotyping.
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