Reducing Reoccurence and Complications of Gc/Ct

Gonococcal Neisseria (GC) and Chlamydia Trachomatis (CT) infections account for the largest number of reported cases of any infectious disease in the United States. The rates at which these infections occur are on the rise. Gonococcal Neisseria (GC) and Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) infections are also among the commonly curable sexually transmitted infections (STI)(California Department of Public Health, 2011). Though subsequent infections are preventable, reinfection rates are high [1]. As many as 20% of patients, especially females, reacquire GC or CT within six months after the initial positive test and treatment, and it is estimated that as many as 40% of adolescents get re-infeceted after an initial episode of GC and/or CT annually [2]. Chlamydia represents the most common reportable disease in the United States, and has comprised the largest proportion of all sexually transmitted infections (STIs) reported [3].

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“Everything feels risky now”: Perceived “risky” sexual behavior during COVID-19 pandemic

Journal of Health Psychology ◽

10.1177/13591053211004684 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 135910532110046

Author(s):

Jessamyn Bowling ◽

Erika Montanaro ◽

Jennifer Gattuso ◽

Diana Gioia ◽

Sarai Guerrero Ordonez

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

United States ◽

Sexual Behavior ◽

Sexually Transmitted Infections ◽

Risky Sexual Behavior ◽

Risk Perceptions ◽

The United States ◽

Sexually Transmitted ◽

Multiple Risks ◽

Qualitative Analyses

Social distancing through the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted sexuality and relationships, which may also change risk perceptions beyond traditional definitions (e.g. sexually transmitted infections). This study examines risk perceptions related to sexuality during the pandemic. We present qualitative analyses of a survey of adults in the United States ( N = 333) to identify impacts of COVID-19 on individuals’ risk perceptions. Risky sexual behavior definitions included: (1) COVID-19-related, (2) STI/pregnancy, (3) relationship-related, (4) physical boundaries, (5) drug or alcohol, and (6) multiple risks. Conventional public health messaging may need to incorporate changing risk definitions to address sexual health during the pandemic.

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Monitoring Socioeconomic Inequalities in Sexually Transmitted Infections, Tuberculosis, and Violence: Geocoding and Choice of Area-Based Socioeconomic Measures—The Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project (US)

Public Health Reports ◽

10.1093/phr/118.3.240 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 118 (3) ◽

pp. 240-260 ◽

Cited By ~ 66

Author(s):

Nancy Krieger ◽

Pamela D. Waterman ◽

Jarvis T. Chen ◽

Mah-Jabeen Soobader ◽

SV Subramanian

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

United States ◽

Sexually Transmitted Infections ◽

Census Tract ◽

Public Health Surveillance ◽

The United States ◽

Health Surveillance ◽

Block Group ◽

Sexually Transmitted ◽

Zip Code

Objectives. To determine which area-based socioeconomic measures, at which level of geography, are suitable for monitoring socioeconomic inequalities in sexually transmitted infections (STIs), tuberculosis (TB), and violence in the United States. Methods. Cross-sectional analysis of public health surveillance data, geocoded and linked to area-based socioeconomic measures generated from 1990 census tract, block group, and ZIP Code data. We included all incident cases among residents of either Massachusetts (MA; 1990 population = 6,016,425) or Rhode Island (RI; 1990 population = 1,003,464) for: STIs (MA: 1994–1998, n = 26,535 chlamydia, 7,464 gonorrhea, 2,619 syphilis; RI: 1994–1996, n = 4,473 chlamydia, 1,256 gonorrhea, 305 syphilis); TB (MA: 1993–1998, n = 1,793; RI: 1985–1994, n = 576), and non-fatal weapons related injuries (MA: 1995–1997, n = 6,628). Results. Analyses indicated that: ( a) block group and tract socioeconomic measures performed similarly within and across both states, with results more variable for the ZIP Code level measures; ( b) measures of economic deprivation consistently detected the steepest socioeconomic gradients, considered across all outcomes (incidence rate ratios on the order of 10 or higher for syphilis, gonorrhea, and non-fatal intentional weapons-related injuries, and 7 or higher for chlamydia and TB); and ( c) results were similar for categories generated by quintiles and by a priori categorical cut-points. Conclusions. Supplementing U.S. public health surveillance systems with census tract or block group area-based socioeconomic measures of economic deprivation could greatly enhance monitoring and analysis of social inequalities in health in the United States.

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The Estimated Number and Lifetime Medical Cost of HIV Infections Attributable to Sexually Transmitted Infections Acquired in the United States in 2018

Sexually Transmitted Diseases ◽

10.1097/olq.0000000000001358 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol Publish Ahead of Print ◽

Author(s):

Harrell Chesson ◽

Ruiguang Song ◽

Adrienna Bingham ◽

Paul G. Farnham

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Sexually Transmitted Infections ◽

Medical Cost ◽

Hiv Infections ◽

The United States ◽

Sexually Transmitted

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Automated Travel History Extraction From Clinical Notes for Informing the Detection of Emergent Infectious Disease Events: Algorithm Development and Validation

JMIR Public Health and Surveillance ◽

10.2196/26719 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. e26719

Author(s):

Kelly S Peterson ◽

Julia Lewis ◽

Olga V Patterson ◽

Alec B Chapman ◽

Daniel W Denhalter ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Infectious Disease ◽

United States ◽

Text Processing ◽

The United States ◽

Language Models ◽

Travel History ◽

Patient Travel ◽

Electronic Health ◽

Automated Text Processing

Background Patient travel history can be crucial in evaluating evolving infectious disease events. Such information can be challenging to acquire in electronic health records, as it is often available only in unstructured text. Objective This study aims to assess the feasibility of annotating and automatically extracting travel history mentions from unstructured clinical documents in the Department of Veterans Affairs across disparate health care facilities and among millions of patients. Information about travel exposure augments existing surveillance applications for increased preparedness in responding quickly to public health threats. Methods Clinical documents related to arboviral disease were annotated following selection using a semiautomated bootstrapping process. Using annotated instances as training data, models were developed to extract from unstructured clinical text any mention of affirmed travel locations outside of the continental United States. Automated text processing models were evaluated, involving machine learning and neural language models for extraction accuracy. Results Among 4584 annotated instances, 2659 (58%) contained an affirmed mention of travel history, while 347 (7.6%) were negated. Interannotator agreement resulted in a document-level Cohen kappa of 0.776. Automated text processing accuracy (F1 85.6, 95% CI 82.5-87.9) and computational burden were acceptable such that the system can provide a rapid screen for public health events. Conclusions Automated extraction of patient travel history from clinical documents is feasible for enhanced passive surveillance public health systems. Without such a system, it would usually be necessary to manually review charts to identify recent travel or lack of travel, use an electronic health record that enforces travel history documentation, or ignore this potential source of information altogether. The development of this tool was initially motivated by emergent arboviral diseases. More recently, this system was used in the early phases of response to COVID-19 in the United States, although its utility was limited to a relatively brief window due to the rapid domestic spread of the virus. Such systems may aid future efforts to prevent and contain the spread of infectious diseases.

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Addressing sexually transmitted infections in the sociocultural context of black heterosexual relationships in the United States

Social Science & Medicine ◽

10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113303 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 263 ◽

pp. 113303 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Natasha Crooks ◽

Akilah Wise ◽

Tyralynn Frazier

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Sexually Transmitted Infections ◽

The United States ◽

Sociocultural Context ◽

Heterosexual Relationships ◽

Sexually Transmitted

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Human Immunodeficiency Virus Pre-exposure Prophylaxis and Increased Incidence of Sexually Transmitted Infections in the United States

Clinical Infectious Diseases ◽

10.1093/cid/ciz552 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 70 (9) ◽

pp. 1884-1890 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jose A Serpa ◽

Gabriel N Huynh ◽

Julie B Nickell ◽

Hongyu Miao

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Human Immunodeficiency Virus ◽

Sexually Transmitted Infections ◽

State Level ◽

The United States ◽

Incidence Rates ◽

Interrupted Time Series Analysis ◽

Sexually Transmitted ◽

Immunodeficiency Virus ◽

Exposure Prophylaxis

Abstract Background Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) decreases HIV transmission. Some studies have raised concerns about a potential association between the implementation of HIV PrEP and the growing incidence rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the United States. Methods We conducted a quasi-experimental (interrupted time series) analysis of STI (syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia) rates before (2000–2012) and after (2013–2017) the implementation of HIV PrEP. We also performed correlations between HIV PrEP utilization and STI cases at the national (2012–2017) and state (2017) levels. We defined HIV PrEP utilization as the number of people taking tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine for HIV prevention. Results HIV PrEP implementation was associated with 25% (relative risk [RR] 1.254, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.245–1.263; P < .001) and 26% (RR 1.260, 95% CI 1.257–1.264; P < .001) increases in syphilis and gonorrhea rates, respectively, and a 12% reduction in chlamydia rates (RR: 0.884, 95% CI 0.883–0.885; P < .001). HIV PrEP utilization was correlated with the numbers of syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia cases (spearman coefficients 1.00, 0.94, and 0.94, respectively; P < .001, P < .01, and P < .01, respectively). At the state level, HIV PrEP was also correlated with the number of cases of syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia (spearman coefficients 0.85, 0.81, and 0.85, respectively; Ps < .001 for all correlations). Conclusions The implementation and utilization of HIV PrEP in the United States were associated with increased rates of STIs. Further studies to confirm these associations and to elucidate potential causes are needed.

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