Private MD News

Panel calls for STD medications to be made more available

Category: Sexually Transmitted Diseases

A positive STD test affects more than just the person with the infection - it also has implications for the sexual partners of that person. For this reason, a group of experts is calling for the expedited treatment of these individuals.

Officials from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recently wrote in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology that doctors who identify a woman as being infected with gonorrhea or chlamydia should be allowed to provide medication to the sexual partners of these individuals without requiring a physical examination.

The panel did acknowledge that there are potential risks of supplying medications to people they have not examined, according to Reuters News. Some antibiotics carry the risk of side effects, which medical professionals would have the opportunity to explain to patients. Still, most see expedited treatment as a logical step.

"To treat the infected person and not the partner creates an impossible situation," Dr. Myron Cohen, an infectious disease expert at the University of North Carolina who was not involved with the writing of the statement, told the news source. "From a social-justice point of view, doing nothing with the partner makes no sense."