WHO Releases New STI Treatment Guidelines

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released new guidelines for the treatment of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis, due to the diseases’ increasing treatment resistance.

The new recommendations update the group’s guidance from 2003, coming in response to growing antibiotic resistance among the 3 sexually transmitted infections (STIs), with gonorrhea developing the strongest resistance.
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The guidelines are based upon the latest evidence for effective treatment of the 3 STIs and include the following recommendations:

  • Quinolones are no longer recommended due to high rates of resistance.
  • Dual therapy is preferable over single therapy.
  • Health officials should advise providers to prescribe whichever antibiotic would be most effective based on local patterns.
  • A single dose of benzathine penicillin is recommended for the treatment of syphilis.

“The new WHO guidelines reinforce the need to treat these STIs with the right antibiotic, at the right dose, and the right time to reduce their spread and improve sexual and reproductive health. To do that, national health services need to monitor the patterns of antibiotic resistance in these infections within their countries," the guidelines’ authors concluded.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Growing antibiotic resistance forces updates to recommended treatment for sexually transmitted infections [press release]. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization. August 30, 2016. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2016/antibiotics-sexual-infections/en/. Accessed August 31, 2016.