Better results for STIs if patients offered treatment for partners
Recurrence of sexually transmitted infections can be reduced by giving patients medicines to take home for their partners, new research suggests.
US researchers randomised almost 2,000 patients with chlamydia or gonorrhoea
to receive either a standard or an enhanced referral service for their
partners. Patients in the standard group were advised to refer their
partners for treatment and were offered help with telling their partners
about the infection. In the enhanced group, patients were offered medicine
to take home to give to their partners, or the option for a member of
medical staff to contact the partners and provide them with treatment
without an examination.
The researchers found that persistent or recurrent gonorrhoea occurred
in 121 out of 931 patients receiving standard referral advice (13 per
cent), compared with 92 out of 929 patients receiving the enhanced referral
service (10 per cent). The reduction was greater for gonorrhoea than
for chlamydia infections.
The researchers suggest that “patient-delivered partner therapy” should
be incorporated into clinical treatment programmes, but acknowledge the
potential risks involved.
These include the possibility of a partner having an allergic reaction
to the treatment, partners being infected with other concurrent diseases
that would only be identifiable upon examination and the loss of the
opportunity to counsel partners for the need to refer, in turn, any other
sexual partners they may have (New England Journal of Medicine 2005;352:676). |
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