STI Podcast

IAS23 Conference Feedback in Brisbane, Australia in July 2023

Welcome to the 4th episode of the 2023 BMJ Sexually Transmitted Infections Podcast Series. This year the International AIDS Society Conference was held for the first time in Brisbane Australia in July 2023. It was wonderful to learn about many new research findings, community perspectives and to connect with old friends and make new ones. Today we will provide you with some of the many clinical, vaccine and policy research highlights of this conference and share our subjective perspectives. We were joined by: Dr Ming Lee, a sexual health & HIV physician and UK MRC Clinical Research Training Fellow at Imperial College London, London, UK, Prof Damian Purcell, Head of the Molecular Virology Laboratory in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Peter Doherty Institute, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, Dr Meg Doherty, Director of Global HIV, Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infection Programmes at World Health Organization, Heath Quarter. Hosted by: Dr Fabiola Martin, the BMJ STI Podcast editor and Sexual Health Specialist based in Australia and lecturer at School of Public Health at University of Queensland.

World Hepatitis Day 2023: Unveiling the Hidden Threats of the Hepatitis B Virus

In honour of World Hepatitis Day, today we focus on the Hepatitis B virus (HBV), a virus that can be transmitted through contact with infected blood and from mother to child during labour. HBV can also be transmitted sexually. It infects liver cells and causes both acute and chronic infections, which can be severe. Since HBV was discovered in 1965, we have made great progress in reducing the burden of infections and disease through prevention and antiviral treatment, but much is left to do. The World Health Organization has called for enhanced efforts along four main pathways: i) increasing awareness of HBV infection, ii) promoting prevention strategies, iii) expanding access to testing and treatment; and iv) improving surveillance, data collection and research. Today we will discuss these topics with a focus on the European Region with our three guests:
- Dr. Erika Duffell, Public Health Physician, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Stockholm, Sweden
- Prof. Anna Maria Geretti, Editor in Chief, STI journal; Professor & Consultant in Infectious Diseases & Virology, Fondazione PTV, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy; North Middlesex University Hospital and King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
- Prof.  Simon de Lusignan, Senior Academic General Practitioner (GP) and Director of the Royal College of GPs Research & Surveillance Centre, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
Hosted by: Dr. Fabiola Martin, Sexual Health, HIV, HTLV specialist, BMJ STI Podcast Editor, Brisbane, Australia 
 
Relevant papers:
Hepatitis B virus infection in general practice across England: An analysis of the Royal College of General Practitioners Research and Surveillance Centre real-world database
https://www.journalofinfection.com/article/S0163-4453(23)00130-5/
Impact of maternal HIV–HBV coinfection on pregnancy outcomes in an underdeveloped rural area of southwest China
https://sti.bmj.com/content/96/7/509
Prevalence of hepatitis B immunity and infection in home self-sampling HIV service users
https://sti.bmj.com/content/98/4/286
Hepatitis A and B vaccination in gbMSM in Ireland: findings from the European MSM Internet Survey 2017 (EMIS-2017)
https://sti.bmj.com/content/99/5/337
Hepatitis A and B vaccine uptake and immunisation among men who have sex with men seeking PrEP: a substudy of the ANRS IPERGAY trial
https://sti.bmj.com/content/99/2/140
Hepatitis A, hepatitis B and HPV vaccine needs and coverage in MSM initiating HIV PrEP in a sexual health clinic in Paris
https://sti.bmj.com/content/99/5/361
 
 

A vaccine against gonorrhoea: Is it more than an aspiration?

Neisseria gonorrhoeae, in short NG, is a ubiquitous sexually transmitted bacteria that can cause both localised and systemic disease if left untreated. NG may also be transmitted vertically from mother to baby. Over the last years, we have seen a rise in the number of people diagnosed with gonorrhoea, alongside growing rates of antibiotic resistance. New research makes us hopeful that a vaccine may soon become available to provide global, large scale benefits. In this podcast, we explore this possibility with three experts in the field: Prof Kate Seib (1), Dr Claire Dewsnap (2) and Dr Silvia Nozza (3).
 
Would you like to know more about the topic? Please read the paper we recently published in STI: "Prior Neisseria meningitidis (Nm) proctitis does not prevent Neisseria gonorrhoeae (Ng) proctitis among men who have sex with men (MSM)": https://sti.bmj.com/content/99/3/215
 
(1) NHMRC Leadership Fellow and Associate Director for Research, Institute for Glycomics, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia 
 
(2) President of the British HIV Association for HIV & Sexual Health (BASHH) and Consultant in Genitourinary Medicine, Sheffield Teaching Hospital, Sheffield, UK
 
(3) Consultant in Infectious Diseases, Head of Prevention Unit, San Raffaele Hospital (IRCCS), Milan, Italy

Rise of Syphilis

Welcome back to the 2023 BMJ STI Podcasts. Today we will focus on the worsening Syphilis epidemic worldwide. Syphilis is a bacteria that infects humans, and is transmitted horizontally through close sexual contact and vertically to unborn babies and neonates. It can cause acute and severe illness in those affected, such as neurosyphilis, and have tragic consequences for mother and baby. With the discovery of penicillin, access to testing, and especially public health interventions such as regular testing of asymptomatic, sexually active people and routine antenatal testing, we thought we could start focusing on eradicating Syphilis one day. Alas, over the last decade we have seen what seems an unstoppable rise of syphilis incidence world-wide. In conversation with Prof Clare Nourse, Prof. James Ward and Dr Angelica Espinosa Miranda we explore the issue at hand focusing on Australia and South America.

MPox 101, Community and Global response

Today we talk about transmission, diagnosis and management of MPox. We will also review the UK community and the World Health’s Organization's perspective on this virus. Please note that after the recording of this podcast the WHO implemented a change of the name of the virus to MPox.
Dr Fabiola Martin, STI's Podcast editor, interviews Dr Liesbeth Van Gestel, ID physician and clinical researcher at the Tropical Institute of Antwerp, Belgium; Mr Simon Collins, director and co-founder of HIV iBase London, UK; as well as Dr Meg Doherty, the World Health Organisation’s Director of Global HIV, Hepatitis and STIs Programmes.
For more information, please read the STI recently published articles: one from Vanhamel and co-authors tracking the transmission of the virus in the early phases of the outbreak in Belgium (https://sti.bmj.com/content/early/2022/11/17/sextrans-2022-055601), and a second from Heskin and colleagues reporting on the rapid response of sexual health services to the outbreak in the UK (https://sti.bmj.com/content/early/2022/12/14/sextrans-2022-055558?rss=1).

HIV and STI prevention, plus HIV in Ukraine

In this double-interview podcast, the Editor-in-Chief of the STI journal, Professor Anna Maria Geretti, brings you some of the highlights from the HIV Glasgow 2022 conference.
In the first interview (starting at 1:00), Professor Geretti interviews Jean-Michel Molina*, who discusses HIV and STI prevention.
The second interview (starting at 12:30) is with Professor Miłosz Parczewski**. They discuss the effects of the war in Ukraine on the country’s healthcare system, in particular on the prevalence of STIs.
*Professor of Infectious Diseases University of Paris, France and Head of the Infectious Diseases Department, Saint-Louis Hospital and Lariboisière Hospital Paris, France.
**Clinical specialist and Professor of Infectious Diseases Pomeranian Medical University, Szczecin, Poland. Associate Editor on STI and newly elected Vice President of the European AIDS Clinical Society.
To hear more episodes of the STI Podcast, please subscribe:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/sti-podcast/id356342980

Bacterial STIs: The DoxyPEP Trial

Today we talk with the principal investigators of the DoxyPEP trial which was prematurely terminated due to its amazing success: participants receiving a stat dose of Doxycycline 200mg in less than 72 hours after condom-less sex were 63% less likely to develop a bacterial STI compared to participants in the control arm.
Prof Annie Leutkemeyer based in San Francisco (UCSF) and Prof Connie Celum, based in Seattle (WA)join Dr Fabiola Martin, STI's Podcast editor, in this short interview.
Please listen to a recent podcast on the wider subject of Bacterial STIs: https://soundcloud.com/bmjpodcasts/management-of-bacterial-stis?in=bmjpodcasts/sets/sti
Related links:
https://www.aidsmap.com/news/jul-2022/taking-antibiotic-after-sex-cuts-stis-two-thirds-doxypep-study-finds
academic.oup.com/cid/article/70/6/1247/5557867
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8360665/
To hear more episodes of the STI Podcast, please subscribe: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/sti-podcast/id356342980

Presumptive and Prophylactic management of Bacterial STIs

Today we focus on presumptive and prophylactic management of bacterial STIs, talking with Dr Manoji Gunathilake, Head of sexual health services in Darwin, Australia, and Assistant Prof Will Nutland, the director of the NGO, the Love Tank, in London, UK.
Related links:
STI Guidelines Australia: https://sti.guidelines.org.au/
The Love Tank: http://thelovetank.info/
GRASP report: data to June 2021 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1033882/GRASP_2020_Report.pdf
Taking antibiotic after sex cuts STIs by two-thirds, ‘DoxyPEP’ study finds - www.aidsmap.com/news/jul-2022/tak…xypep-study-finds
Doxycycline PEP significantly reduces STIs in people at high risk of infections - i-base.info/htb/43528

Preventing anal cancer in people with HIV: learnings from the ANCHOR study

In this podcast, we interview Professor Joel Palefsky about the ANCHOR study. Sexually Transmitted Infections' Editorial Fellow, Dr Ming Lee, speaks to the journal Editor in Chief, Professor Anna Maria Geretti, and Professor Palefsky, chief investigator of the randomised controlled trial, about the study which investigated treatment of anal high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) to prevent progression to anal cancer.
The study was stopped early following an interim analysis showing a clear benefit in reducing the risk of progression to anal cancer by 57 %, and the findings were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Professor Palefsky also discusses how screening for anal cancer could be improved.
Related link about the ANCHOR study: https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2201048?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed

HTLV2022: 20th International Conference on Human Retrovirology

Thank you for joining us for the HTLV2022 Conference review. Dr Fabiola Martin speaks to Joanna Curteis, the Australian patient representative, Dr Carolina Rosadas, researcher associate at National Centre for Human Retrovirology, Imperial College London, who specialises in HTLV-1 vertical transmission and Prof Damian Purcell. Damian's research group investigates the HIV-1 and HTLV-1 human retroviruses that cause AIDS and leukaemia/inflammatory pathogenesis respectively at Doherty Institute, Melbourne. We also discuss the Global Call to Action towards the elimination of HTLV-1 and an important message from the World Health Organisation delivered by Dr Meg Doherty.
Related blog post: https://blogs.bmj.com/sti/2022/07/06/ichr-2022/
Related links:
https://www.htlvnet.com
https://www.htlvaware.com
HTLV Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI6aLSTtk7chXMeybJ92Fhw
Follow @HTLVChannel
National Centre for Human Retrovirology http://www.htlv.eu/
WHO HTLV technical report https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/339773