The objective is in particular to allow a healthcare professional or a third party to inform the partner of a patient in whom an STI has been diagnosed.
To prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs), the High Authority for Health (HAS) proposes to change the current legislative framework in terms of professional secrecy, which notably limits the possibilities of informing partners.
“The objective is to offer the patient in whom an STI is diagnosed the possibility of choosing the way of informing his partner(s) and thus promoting the initiation of a notification process”, writes the HAS in a notice published on Thursday.
Partner informed by caregiver?
“The idea would be that the health professional or a third party can inform the partner of a patient with the consent of the latter, if he cannot do so, for reasons which belong to him and despite all the efforts made to encourage him in this direction”, we explain to the health authority. A possibility that is currently not allowed by professional secrecy.
It is a “complementary strategy to indiscriminate screening for STIs”.
“In 2022, bacterial STIs are on the rise overall, the HIV epidemic is still very active and the delay in diagnosis persists”, deplores the HAS, which qualifies the fight once morest STIs “a public health challenge” in the country. .
Through this new opinion, the health authority wants to seize the opportunity “to assess the sexual health of partners and screen for other STIs”.
Break the chains of transmission
According to the High Health Authority, whose opinions are generally followed by the government, the possibility of accelerated treatment of partners (TAP) “should also be authorized in France”. Indeed, the current regulations do not allow it.
Accelerated treatment consists of giving a patient diagnosed with an STI a prescription for the benefit of a partner, without prior consultation with the latter.
Such a change in regulations would allow “partners to be treated as soon as possible, especially in the absence of symptoms and if it is known that they will not go to a doctor or approach the health care system. health”, estimates the HAS.
The process known as notification to the partner(s) is a major prevention tool, she recalls. It aims to interrupt the chains of transmission, by reaching a population at higher risk, so as to minimize the associated morbidity and mortality.
