It is vital to treat partners of patients with curable STIs as quickly as possible. But the effectiveness of interventions to achieve this proves hard to measure – and the case for increasing resources correspondingly difficult to make. The inadequacy of the resources available to existing partner services has led some investigators in the US […]
Latest articles
ChemSex and HCV transmission among UK MSM
Reports of substantial rises in the incidence of HCV among MSM populations in the UK (STI/Yaphe & Klein; STI/Ghosn & Chaix) have attracted some attention in STI journal. Not least because intravenous drug use is the most obvious mode of transmission for this blood-borne virus, and MSM have in the past tended not to use this route of administration. […]
Should the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Keele University Postgraduate Award in Medical Education be compulsory for GUM trainees?
Author: Dr Zana Ladipo, New Croft Sexual Health Centre, The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle, UK Sexual Health services in the United Kingdom are changing from separate Genitourinary Medicine (GUM) clinics and Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health (FSRH) clinics to a more integrated Sexual Health service, a one-stop shop for patients. There […]
Population-based study concludes: HPV vaccination does not cause sexual disinhibition
HPV is known to be the cause of various types of cancer, including cervical cancer. Routine vaccination before the onset of sexual activity ought therefore to be effective in reducing the incidence of these cancers, and has been adopted by many countries. The impact of such programmes will not be apparent for years; but the […]
Living dangerously in the Dominican Republic and Mexico City: can cash transfer payments be used to counteract the “risk premium”?
The Caribbean has the highest levels of HIV outside sub-Saharan Africa – and the Dominican Republic (DR), which together with Haiti accounts for 70% of all people living with HIV in the Caribbean region, is a hotspot. While there has been a 73% reduction in the rate of new infections in the DR between 2001 […]
Heterosexual transmission of HPV to male oral tract via oral/genital route indicated by partner data
The UK Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) has not so far decided to extend HPV vaccination to boys, but this possibility remains under consideration (Public Health England Guidance on HPV 2014-15). The potential benefit of protecting males from face and neck cancer will be an important consideration, both in the UK and in […]
Obituary of Denis Lambert Sugrue
Denis Lambert Sugrue Dr D Sugrue photo Denis Sugrue was born in Dublin on 10th March 1927. He had a happy childhood in Dublin with his parents, older sister and half-brother. He had a tremendous affection and pride for his father who was a decorated soldier of the First World War. He was educated at […]
Tracking the origin, early spread, and ignition of pandemic #HIV-1 through new approaches to phylogenetic analysis
“Distribution of HIV-1 subtypes in a population”, state Mumtaz & Raddad (STI) in a study of the HIV pandemic in the Middle East, “tracks the spread and evolution of the epidemic”. Various studies covered in our previous blogs have attempted to read the history of the progress of the HIV epidemic through the evidence of […]
Failed PrEP trial (VOICE) participants give reasons for their poor adherence
Despite indications of the acceptability of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) among certain populations (MSM in London (STI/Aghaizu & Nardone) 2013, and Australia (STI/Holt & De Wit) 2012), the extremely varied results that have emanated from large studies seeking to determine its efficacy and effectiveness as a preventative intervention remain a concern. To name the most important […]
“Hispanic” label masks the specificity of the Puerto Rican #HIV problem in US Northeast
Interventions for HIV prevention should be informed by an understanding of the long-term source of infection, and not just by recent distribution (Mishra & Boily (STIs)). Amongst recent studies that have sought to inform future interventions are investigations of known subgroups thought to be a potential bridge into the wider population – such as migrant […]