STD rates cut by rapid treatment of sex partners

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Immediately treating the partners of people infected with gonorrhea or chlamydia can reduce rates of recurrence of these sexual transmitted diseases.

This finding comes from a study of 1860 patients with gonorrhea or chlamydia whose partners were randomly to receive expedited treatment or were referred for standard treatment.

With the expedited treatment strategy, the patients who were diagnosed with an STD had the option of either giving antibiotic agents directly to their partners or indirectly through a member of the study staff. 

In either case, a clinical examination was not performed to confirm that the partners actually had an infection.

During 3 to 19 weeks after treatment, persistent or recurrent infections were noted in 10 percent of patients in the expedited treatment group, lower than the 13 percent rate seen in the standard referral group, Dr. Matthew R. Golden, from the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues report.

Therefore, the immediate approach cut the risk of such infections by 24 percent, the team reports in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine.

When surveyed, patients in the expedited treatment group were less likely to report having sex with an untreated partner than those in the standard referral group.

In a related editorial, Dr. Emily J. Erbelding and Dr. Jonathan M. Zenilman, from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, comment: “The decision to implement expedited treatment of sexual partners for gonorrhea and chlamydial infection into general practice will require some compromises.” Still, this approach “holds great promise for the improved control and prevention of STDs.”

SOURCE: New England Journal of Medicine, February 17, 2005.

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