1887
  1. Home
  2. Eurosurveillance
  3. Volume 27, Issue 3, 20/Jan/2022
  4. Article
Perspective Open Access
Like 0
Download

Abstract

Partner notification (PN) is an essential element of sexually transmitted infection (STI) control. It enables identification, treatment and advice for sexual contacts who may benefit from additional preventive interventions such as HIV pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis. PN is most effective in reducing STI transmission when it reaches individuals who are most likely to have an STI and to engage in sexual behaviour that facilitates STI transmission, including having multiple and/or new sex partners. Outcomes of PN practice need to be measurable in order to inform standards. They need to address all five stages in the cascade of care: elicitation of partners, establishing contactable partners, notification, testing and treatment. In the United Kingdom, established outcome measures cover only the first three stages and do not take into account the type of sexual partnership. We report an evidence-based process to develop new PN outcomes and inform standards of care. We undertook a systematic literature review, evaluation of published information on types of sexual partnership and a modified Delphi process to reach consensus. We propose six new PN outcome measures at five stages of the cascade, including stratification by sex partnership type. Our framework for PN outcome measurement has potential to contribute in other domains, including Covid-19 contact tracing.

© Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.3.2001895
2022-01-20
2024-11-21
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.3.2001895
Loading
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/27/3/eurosurv-27-3-4.html?itemId=/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.3.2001895&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Low N, Broutet N, Adu-Sarkodie Y, Barton P, Hossain M, Hawkes S. Global control of sexually transmitted infections. Lancet. 2006;368(9551):2001-16.  https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69482-8  PMID: 17141708 
  2. McClean H, Radcliffe K, Sullivan A, Ahmed-Jushuf I. 2012 BASHH statement on partner notification for sexually transmissible infections. Int J STD AIDS. 2013;24(4):253-61.  https://doi.org/10.1177/0956462412472804  PMID: 23970656 
  3. British Association for Sexual Health and HIV. Standards for the management of STIs. 2019;(April). Available from: www.bashh.org/about-bashh/publications/standards-for-the-management-of-stis
  4. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Public health benefits of partner notification for sexually transmitted infections and HIV. Stockholm: ECDC; 2013. Available from: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/media/en/publications/Publications/Partner-notification-for-HIV-STI-June-2013.pdf
  5. Mercer CH, Jones KG, Johnson AM, Lewis R, Mitchell KR, Gravningen K, et al. How can we objectively categorise partnership type? A novel classification of population survey data to inform epidemiological research and clinical practice. Sex Transm Infect. 2017;93(2):129-36.  https://doi.org/10.1136/sextrans-2016-052646  PMID: 27535765 
  6. Anderson RM. Research issues in human behavior and sexually transmitted diseases in the AIDS era. In: Wasserheit JN, Aral SO, Holmes KK, Hitchcock PJ, editors. The transmission dynamics of sexually transmitted diseases: the behavioral component. Washington D.C.: American Society for Microbiology; 1991. p. 38-60.
  7. Mercer CH, Aicken CRH, Brook MG, Estcourt CS, Cassell JA. Estimating the likely public health impact of partner notification for a clinical service: an evidence-based algorithm. Am J Public Health. 2011;101(11):2117-23.  https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2011.300211  PMID: 21940925 
  8. Brook G, Bacon L, Evans C, McClean H, Roberts C, Tipple C, et al. 2013 UK national guideline for consultations requiring sexual history taking. Int J STD AIDS. 2014;25(6):391-404.  https://doi.org/10.1177/0956462413512807  PMID: 24285601 
  9. Ferreira A, Young T, Mathews C, Zunza M, Low N. Strategies for partner notification for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2013;2013(10):CD002843.  https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD002843.pub2  PMID: 24092529 
  10. Welcome to the LUSTRUM website. London: LUSTRUM. [Accessed: 4 May 2020]. Available from: https://www.lustrum.org.uk
  11. Estcourt CS, Howarth AR, Copas A, Low N, Mapp F, Woode Owusu M, et al. Accelerated partner therapy (APT) partner notification for people with Chlamydia trachomatis: protocol for the Limiting Undetected Sexually Transmitted infections to RedUce Morbidity (LUSTRUM) APT cross-over cluster randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open. 2020;10(3):e034806.  https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-034806  PMID: 32229523 
  12. Estcourt CS, Flowers P, Cassell JA, Pothoulaki M, Vojt G, Mapp F, et al. Going beyond ‘regular and casual’: development of a classification of sexual partner types to enhance partner notification for STIs. Sex Transm Infect. 2021;sextrans-2020-054846.  https://doi.org/10.1136/sextrans-2020-054846  PMID: 33927009 
  13. Hsu C-C, Sandford BA. The Delphi technique: making sense of consensus. Pract Assess, Res Eval. 2007;12:10.
  14. LUSTRUM accelerated partner therapy (APT) chlamydia trial V1.0. ISRCTN15996256. London: ISRCTN registry. [Accessed: 6 May 2020]. Available from: http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN15996256
Optimising partner notification outcomes for bacterial sexually transmitted infections: a deliberative process and consensus, United Kingdom, 2019
<p class="citation"> <span>Citation style for this article:</span> <span class="meta-value authors"> <a href="/search?value1=Sonali+Wayal&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Wayal Sonali</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Claudia+S+Estcourt&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Estcourt Claudia S</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Catherine+H+Mercer&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Mercer Catherine H</a>, <a href="/search?value1=John+Saunders&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Saunders John</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Nicola+Low&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Low Nicola</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Tamsin+McKinnon&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">McKinnon Tamsin</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Merle+Symonds&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Symonds Merle</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Jackie+A+Cassell&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Cassell Jackie A</a></span>. Optimising partner notification outcomes for bacterial sexually transmitted infections: a deliberative process and consensus, United Kingdom, 2019. <a href="/content/ecdc">Euro Surveill.</a> 2022;27(3):pii=2001895. <a href="https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.3.2001895" title="doi link" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.3.2001895</a> <span class="ES_Article_citation"> <span class="generated">Received</span>: 03 Nov 2020;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="generated">Accepted</span>: 31 May 2021 </span> </p>
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.3.2001895
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.3.2001895
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Supplementary data

Submit comment
Close
Comment moderation successfully completed
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error