Mike Stobbe, Associated Press
27 minutes ago
FILE – A pharmacist holds a bottle of the antibiotic doxycycline hyclate in Sacramento, California, on July 8, 2016. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Monday, October 2, 2023, that it plans to approve this antibiotic as a post-antibiotic. A morning-after sex pill that gay and bisexual men can use to avoid sexually transmitted diseases, which are becoming increasingly common. (AP Photo/Ricci Pedroncelli, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials approve a common antibiotic as a morning-after pill that gay and bisexual men can use to stave off sexually transmitted diseases that are becoming increasingly common. I’m making plans.
The draft CDC guidelines were released on Monday, and the agency will move toward a final decision after a 45-day public comment period. With STD rates rising to record levels, “more tools are desperately needed,” said Dr. Jonathan Marmin of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The proposal suggests that some people who take the antibiotic doxycycline within three days of unprotected sex are much more likely to get chlamydia, syphilis, and gonorrhea than people who don’t take antibiotics after sex. This was done after a study found that the
These guidelines are specific to the most studied groups: gay and bisexual men and transgender women who have contracted a sexually transmitted disease in the past 12 months and are at high risk of reinfection. be.
There is less evidence that this approach works for other people, including heterosexual men and women. Mermin, who oversees the CDC’s STD efforts, said that could change with more research.
Still, Marmin said the idea ranks as one of the few major preventive measures in recent decades in “an area that has long lacked innovation.” Others include vaccines against the HPV virus and pills to prevent HIV, he said.
Doxycycline is an inexpensive antibiotic that has been available for more than 40 years and is used to treat health problems such as acne, chlamydia, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
The CDC guidelines are based on four studies on the use of doxycycline for bacterial STDs.
One of the most influential studies was conducted earlier this year in the New England Journal of Medicine. As a result, gay men, bisexual men, and transgender women with a history of sexually transmitted infections who took the pill were about 90% less likely to get chlamydia than the general population. They found that they were about 80% less likely to get syphilis and more than 50% less likely to get gonorrhea. People who didn’t take drugs after sex.
A year ago, the San Francisco Department of Health began promoting doxycycline as a preventive measure after waking up in the morning.
With infection rates rising, “we just didn’t think we could wait,” said Dr. Stephanie Cohen, who oversees the department’s sexually transmitted disease prevention operations.
Several other city, county, and state health departments (mostly on the West Coast) followed suit.
Fenway Health, a Boston-based health center that serves many gay, lesbian and transgender clients, says about 1,000 patients currently use doxycycline in that way. said Dr. Taimur Khan, the organization’s deputy director of medical research.
Khan said the guidelines should have a big impact because many doctors have been reluctant to tell their patients about the guidelines until they hear from the CDC.
Side effects of this drug include stomach problems and a rash after sun exposure. Some studies have found it to be ineffective in heterosexual women. And the widespread use of doxycycline as a preventive measure could theoretically contribute to mutations that make bacteria impervious to the drug.
Although no such antibiotic resistance has occurred in San Francisco, it will be important to be careful in the future, Cohen said.
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