A Systematic Review of Kissing as a Risk Factor for Oropharyngeal Gonorrhea or Chlamydia

Abstract

This systematic review found evidence to suggest a possible association between kissing and oropharyngeal gonorrhea after controlling for other sexual practices, including fellatio and rimming.

Treatment of bacterial sexually transmitted infections in Europe: gonorrhoea, Mycoplasma genitalium, and syphilis

“… 23 Detect and treat pharyngeal infections. 24 Improve contact tracing (digital tools). 25 , 26 Test-and-wait approach for sexual partners.…”

“…There is increasing acceptance that gonorrhoea transmission may occur via saliva, and that not just fellatio but also kissing may pass on infection. 24 More frequent testing may improve detection and treatment of missed infections, reducing onward transmission, but could also increase antibiotic usage and selective pressure for resistance. The optimal criteria for screening and the screening interval remain uncertain and should be a research priority (this topic is further discussed in the asymptomatic screening article of this series).…”

STI pathogens in the oropharynx: update on screening and treatment

“…Infections can be transmitted between two oropharynges via tongue kissing and saliva exchange, and there is increasing emerging evidence to support this new paradigm including epidemiological risk factor studies, sequencing data, partner studies and a sexual network investigation [38 ▪▪ ,39 ▪ ,40 ▪▪ ,41]. Charleson et al [42 ▪ ] summarised the existing evidence from six studies suggesting tongue kissing may be a neglected risk factor for oropharyngeal gonorrhoea although all these six studies were conducted among MSM in Australia and with its limitations [38 ▪▪ ,39 ▪ ,43–46]. Further studies on non-MSM populations will be required given kissing is also a common practice in other populations [47 ▪ –50 ▪ ,51–54].…”

Kiss Around and Find Out: Kissing as a Risk Factor for Pharyngeal Gonorrhea

“…Evidence suggests that gonorrhea transmission via kissing is possible, but we do not know if it is a relatively rare event or if it is one of the main drivers of gonorrhea transmission 1–3 . In this issue, Charleson and colleagues 4 provide a systematic review of studies of kissing as a risk factor for pharyngeal gonorrhea and chlamydia. This important systematic review serves to summarize and highlight some of the available evidence of kissing as a possible route of gonorrhea and chlamydia transmission.…”