2023-10-02 17:14:00
American health authorities are moving into high gear. This Monday, faced with an increase in cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control suggested that doctors preventively prescribe an antibiotic to certain people at risk after unprotected sex.
Doxycycline, an antibiotic developed decades ago, can then be taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. This medication has proven, in clinical trials, that it significantly reduces the risk of infection with these three sexually transmitted diseases (chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis), when taken preventively by certain groups of people after sexual intercourse without a condom.
The new recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which must still undergo a public comment period before their final adoption, concern for the moment only gay men and transgender women, deemed most at risk.
Already prescribed by some doctors
Because expanding access to doxycycline also raises concerns: antibiotic resistance could develop, particularly for gonorrhea, the bacteria in which mutates rapidly. But research on the subject remains reassuring for the moment.
Above all, this antibiotic represents a welcome new weapon to fight against these sexually transmitted infections. Some doctors who have heard of the latest scientific studies have even started to prescribe it for this purpose.
Cases of these three bacterial infections have been increasing for a decade and reached 2.5 million in 2021 in the United States. Firstly because mechanically, the more infections there are, the more they are transmitted. But also because condoms are used less and less since the arrival of PREP – a medication taken as a preventative measure to avoid contracting AIDS.
“Innovation and creativity are important in public health, and we desperately need new tools,” CDC official Jonathan Mermin told AFP before the announcement.
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