GPs armed with new guidelines to tackle STIs in the community
Guidelines to assist general practitioners and sexual health specialists to detect, manage and treat sexually transmissible infections (STIs) have been updated to reflect new testing recently approved in Australia.
Senior clinician at Alfred Health’s Melbourne Sexual Health Centre Dr Catriona Bradshaw said the centre’s latest STIs Treatment guidelines now includes information about recently TGA-approved testing for mycoplasma genitalium or MG, a drug-resistant STI.
“We estimate up to 400,000 Australians are carrying MG, however only recently very few clinics, even sexual health specialists, could test for it,” Dr Bradshaw said.
“Testing has been limited to research laboratories but that is looking to change in Australia, which recently became one of the first countries to approve commercial tests for MG.”
“The new test will allow clinicians to prescribe an antibiotic which the infection is not already resistant to. This ensures better treatment from the beginning, and achieving much higher rates of cure for MG-infections.
“Persistent or recurring symptoms may require referral for specialist treatment,” she said.
“We’ve updated our guidelines to reflect the new testing, and more importantly, to ensure doctors and other sexual health practitioners can confidently identify an STI from the symptoms, provide appropriate treatment options, or to refer it to other specialists when appropriate.”
The guidelines are updated regularly to ensure they are aligned with latest research and best practice developments and contain useful links and resources, such as patient fact sheets.
The guidelines are available on the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre website.
