Syphilis Is (Still) Here: How Must Sexually Transmitted Disease Public Health Programs Adapt?

Philip, Susan; Bernstein, Kyle T.

doi:10.1097/olq.0000000000000779

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 10 publications

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“…If a traditional approach to contact tracing is maintained, intervention trials can test whether index cases will be more likely to report both social and sexual contacts if they know that contacts will be offered self-administered mail-in tests or even self-testing resources for STIs that may be perceived as less intrusive, more accessible in rural areas, and more convenient than referral to clinics [ 28 – 32 ]; internet-accessed STI testing may be particularly effective in reaching young adults who have never been tested for STI [ 33 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Giving syphilis and gonorrhea to friends: using in-person friendship networks to find additional cases of gonorrhea and syphilis

et al. 2020

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Background Syphilis and gonorrhea reached an all-time high in 2018. The resurgence of syphilis and gonorrhea requires innovative methods of sexual contact tracing that encourage disclosure of same-sex sexual contacts that might otherwise be suppressed. Over 75% of Grindr mobile phone application users report seeking “friendship,” so this study asked people diagnosed with syphilis and gonorrhea to identify their friends. Methods Patients at the two Baltimore sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinics and the Baltimore City Health Department were asked 12 questions to elicit members of their friendship networks before eliciting sexual networks. The study included 353 index cases and 172 friendship contacts, yielding a friendship network of 331 non-isolates (n = 331) and sexual-only network of 140 non-isolates. The data were plotted and analyzed using exponential family random graph analysis. Results Eliciting respondents’ in-person social contacts yielded 12 syphilis cases and 6 gonorrhea cases in addition to the 16 syphilis cases and 4 gonorrhea cases that would have been found with sexual contacts alone. Syphilis is clustered within sexual (odds ratio = 2.2, 95% confidence interval (1.36, 3.66)) and social contacts (OR = 1.31, 95% CI (1.02, 1.68)). Gonorrhea is clustered within reported social (OR = 1.56, 95% CI (1.22, 2.00)) but not sexual contacts (OR = 0.98, 95% CI (0.62, 1.53)). Conclusions Eliciting friendship networks of people diagnosed with syphilis and gonorrhea may find members of their sexual networks, drug use networks, or people of similar STI risk. Friendship networks include more diagnosed cases of syphilis and gonorrhea than sexual networks alone, especially among populations with many non-disclosing men who have sex with men (MSM) and women who have sex with women (WSW). Future research should evaluate whether this friendship network method of contact tracing can be implemented by adapting automated mobile phone COVID-19 contact tracing protocols, if these COVID-19 contact tracing methods are able to maintain anonymity and public trust.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Giving syphilis and gonorrhea to friends: using in-person friendship networks to find additional cases of gonorrhea and syphilis

et al. 2020

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Syphilis

Harmon

Robertson

2019

The Nurse Practitioner

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Giving syphilis and gonorrhea to friends: Using in-person friendship networks to find additional cases of gonorrhea and syphilis

Rosenbaum

Jennings

Ellen³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: Syphilis and gonorrhea reached an all-time high in 2018. The resurgence of syphilis and gonorrhea requires innovative methods of sexual contact tracing that encourage disclosure of same-sex sexual contacts that might otherwise be suppressed. Over 75% of Grindr mobile phone application users report seeking “friendship,” so this study asked people diagnosed with syphilis and gonorrhea to identify their friends.Methods: Patients at the two Baltimore sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinics and the Baltimore City Health Department were asked 12 questions to elicit members of their friendship networks before eliciting sexual networks. The study included 353 index cases and 172 friendship contacts, yielding a friendship network of 331 non-isolates (n=331) and sexual-only network of 140 non-isolates. The data were plotted and analyzed using exponential family random graph analysis.Results: Eliciting respondents’ in-person social contacts yielded 12 syphilis cases and 6 gonorrhea cases in addition to the 16 syphilis cases and 4 gonorrhea cases that would have been found with sexual contacts alone. Syphilis is clustered within sexual (odds ratio=2.2, 95% confidence interval (1.36, 3.66)) and social contacts (OR=1.31, 95% CI (1.02, 1.68)). Gonorrhea is clustered within reported social (OR=1.56, 95% CI (1.22, 2.00)) but not sexual contacts (OR=0.98, 95% CI (0.62, 1.53)). Conclusions: Eliciting friendship networks of people diagnosed with syphilis and gonorrhea may find members of their sexual networks, drug use networks, or people of similar STI risk. Friendship networks include more diagnosed cases of syphilis and gonorrhea than sexual networks alone, especially among populations with many non-disclosing men who have sex with men (MSM) and women who have sex with women (WSW). Future research should evaluate whether this friendship network method of contact tracing can be implemented by adapting automated mobile phone COVID-19 contact tracing protocols, if these COVID-19 contact tracing methods are able to maintain anonymity and public trust.

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Syphilis Is (Still) Here: How Must Sexually Transmitted Disease Public Health Programs Adapt?

Cited by 4 publications

References 10 publications

Giving syphilis and gonorrhea to friends: using in-person friendship networks to find additional cases of gonorrhea and syphilis

Giving syphilis and gonorrhea to friends: using in-person friendship networks to find additional cases of gonorrhea and syphilis

Syphilis

Giving syphilis and gonorrhea to friends: Using in-person friendship networks to find additional cases of gonorrhea and syphilis

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