US health officials released data on Tuesday showing how cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis have accelerated in the country, but health professionals hope an old drug will help fight sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
Experts believe that STDs have increased due to decreased condom use, inadequate sex education, and reduced testing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Millions of Americans are infected each year. Rates are higher in men who have sex with men, and among blacks, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans.
“Sexually transmitted infections are a huge, low-priority public health problem. And they’ve been a low-priority problem for decades, even though they’re the most frequently reported type of infectious disease,” said Dr. John Douglas, a retired health official who lectures at the New York School of Public Health. Colorado.
To try to turn the tide, many doctors see promise in doxycycline, a cheap antibiotic that has been on the market for more than 50 years.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is writing recommendations to use it as a kind of morning-after pill to prevent STDs, said Dr. Leandro Mena, director of the agency’s STD prevention division.
The drug is already used to treat a variety of infections. A study published last week in New England Journal of Medicine showed its potential to prevent sexually transmitted infections.
In the study, about 500 gay men, bisexual men and transgender women in Seattle and San Francisco with previous STD infections took a doxycycline pill within 72 hours of unprotected sex. Those who took the pills were about 90% less likely to get chlamydia, about 80% less likely to get syphilis, and more than 50% less likely to get gonorrhea compared with people who didn’t take the pills. after-sex pills, the researchers found.
The study was led by researchers at the University of California San Francisco and built on a similar French study that saw promise in the idea.
“We need new approaches, new innovations” to help control sexually transmitted infections, said Dr. Philip Andrew Chan, who is consulting with the CDC on doxycycline recommendations.
The CDC’s Mena said there are no signs the STD trend is slowing.
At least “another tool”
Using an antibiotic to prevent these kinds of infections won’t be “a magical panacea, but it will be another tool,” said Chan, who teaches at Brown University and is medical director of Open Door Health, a health center for gay, lesbian patients. and transgender in Providence, Rhode Island.
The experts noted that the CDC will have to weigh many factors as it develops the recommendations.
Among them: The drug can cause side effects, such as stomach problems and rashes after sun exposure. Some research has found it ineffective in heterosexual women. And the widespread use of doxycycline as a preventative measure could contribute to mutations that make bacteria impervious to the drug, as has happened before with antibiotics.
However, the San Francisco Department of Public Health in October became the first US health department to issue guidance on doxycycline as an infection prevention measure. And some other clinics have been recommending the antibiotic for patients who may be at higher risk.
Derrick Woods-Morrow, a 33-year-old artist and assistant professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, is one of the first to adapt the pill shot. Woods-Morrow said he’s not a fan of condoms — they can break, and sometimes people take them off during sex. But he wants to stay healthy.
About a decade ago she began taking an antiviral medication before having sex to protect herself from HIV infection. Five years ago, a doctor told him about research on how doxycycline might protect people from other diseases.
“I thought probably the best thing for me was to protect myself and my teammates as well,” he said. He said that it has been a positive experience and that he has not tested positive for chlamydia, gonorrhea or syphilis while he was using it.
“I feel like it’s a tool to regain sexual freedoms that someone may have lost and really enjoy sex and interactions with people with peace of mind,” she said.
Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channel Youtube and activate notifications, or follow us on social networks: Facebook, Twitter and instagram.
