From the Editor’s Desk – Highlights of the September Issue of Sexually Transmitted Infections

Editor’s choice: Factors associated with reporting antibiotic use as STI prophylaxis among HIV PrEP users: findings from a cross-sectional online community survey, May–July 2019, UK Why does it matter? Investigators used an online community survey to study the prevalence and factors associated with self-prescribed STI prophylaxis among HIV PrEP users. Self-prescribing was reported by ~ […]

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COVID-19 and People living with HIV – Revisited

Impact of HIV infection on COVID-19 clinical outcome   In June 2020, STI shared a podcast describing the first available data about the outcomes of COVID-19 related hospitalisation for people living with HIV (PLWH). We shared some  take-home points:  1) Encourage disclosure of known HIV status on COVID-19 related hospital admittance  2) Encourage HIV testing […]

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World Hepatitis Day 2021

STI World Hepatitis Day Podcast In the last decade, direct-acting antivirals have revolutionised hepatitis C treatment. With curative rates in excess of 90%, in 2016 the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the ambitious target of international hepatitis C virus elimination by 2030, aiming to prevent the estimated 400,000 people who die each year from HCV-related […]

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HPV Vaccine Uptake: Challenges and Opportunities

  Welcome to the fourth episode of the STI BMJ 2021 Podcast series. Please join Dr. Fabiola Martin in interviewing Professors Anna Maria Geretti, Carlo Giaquinto, and Ian Frazer about human papillomavirus vaccines and vaccination programmes. The first HPV vaccine was approved in 2006. Fifteen years later, more than 100 countries have added the vaccine […]

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COVID-19 Vaccine and People with HIV

  Welcome to the third episode of the 2021 BMJ STI podcast series! As you listen to this podcast, globally thousands of people will receive a dose of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine along with hope for the future. In this podcast, we will explore the main classes of COVID-19 vaccine and issues pertinent to the administration of […]

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Perspectives – Be ahead of the curve

Grasp your research news here! I am excited to introduce Perspectives, a new section of the journal that starts with the first issue on January 20th 2020 and has an ambitious aim: to scan the published literature, identify interesting research articles, write up a snapshot of the data and – key to this new initiative […]

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WHO/HRP Open Call for Sexual Health-Related Measures and Survey Instruments

WHO/HRP Open Call for Sexual Health-Related Measures and Survey Instruments Juliana Anderson, 1 Kelly VanTreeck 2 Sexual health survey data are often difficult to compare across studies and between countries because survey instruments can be markedly different. In addition, many survey instruments were developed for use in high-income countries, without attention to undertaking similar research […]

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Anti-HIV strategies in limited resource settings set the pattern for combating other diseases

HIV-specific interventions in poor regions of the world like sub-Saharan Africa may have benefits for their health systems that exceed the initial aims of those interventions (How should HIV-specific charitable interventions like PEPFAR be evaluated? (STI/blog)). This is the encouraging message coming out of a recent evaluation of treatment of rheumatoid heart disease (RHD) in […]

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The recent trend towards multi-resistant gonorrhoea in coastal China

Alarming data have recent been reported (Yin & Chen) (Y&C) from the China Gonococcal Resistance Surveillance Programme (China-GRSP), covering seven (mostly coastal) provinces in the period 2013-2016. The study is relevant for Chinese national treatment policy, which currently recommends azithromycin monotherapy. However, with an estimated 45% of the world’s 78 million incident cases occurring in […]

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‘Over-fifties’ diagnosed with HIV: an increasingly important population in European countries

Recent data (Tavoschi & Pharris) about HIV diagnosis from the European surveillance system for the period 2004-2015 point to, amongst other things, the rising importance of the category of older people (>50 years). This trend is something that we have long been aware of (Savona/STI; Bodley-Tickell & Goold/STI). It is less than obvious, however, first, […]

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