Antibiotic pill against STI's increasingly popular despite risk of antibiotic resistance
Antibiotic pill against STI's increasingly popular despite risk of antibiotic resistance
The number of users of the medicine doxyPEP (doxycycline) - an antibiotic used to prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs) after unprotected sex - has increased significantly. The drug is particularly effective against syphilis and chlamydia, but experts are very concerned about the increased risk of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, Nieuwsuur reported.
A new study by the Amsterdam public health service, GGD Amsterdam, showed that 22 percent of respondents have used doxyPEP, up from only 2.5 percent in 2022. Two out of three respondents said they would like to use the drug.
DoxyPEP is primarily used by men who have sex with men. The GGD surveyed 1,633 gay men and transgender people who responded to an online call for information. The results can’t be generalized, but are enough to signal a worrying increase, the GGD said. Worrying, because doxyPEP is an antibiotic and therefore contributes to the rise in antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
“And those bacteria don’t necessarily cause STIs,” Henry de Vries of the GGD told Nieuwsuur. “It could also be the bacteria that currently cause pneumonia. By giving healthy people an antibiotic to prevent them from getting an STI, you’re ultimately wasting the gunpowder we need to treat people who are diagnosed with an infection.”
GGD Amsterdam and SOA Aids Nederland, among others, are therefore pushing against prescribing and using doxyPEP as a preventative. “You really want to reserve antibiotics for serious illnesses,” Hanna Bos of SOA Aids Nederland told the program. “Syphilis is also a serious disease, but it’s easily treatable.”
But this poses a dilemma for general practitioners. Because if they don’t prescribe the medication, users may get hold of it through other, often illegal routes.
BOS of SOA Aids therefore advocates for education and more sensible use of doxyPEP. “People are using it, so we as a healthcare sector will have to do something about that. At the very least, we need to provide good information and clearly explain the pros and cons, so people can make their own informed choices.”
