STI Podcast

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

Mycoplasma Genitalium: Easy to detect, hard to treat

In this podcast, we focus on the bacterial genitourinary pathogen Mycoplasma genitalium (MGEN). We have known this pathogen for a long-time but only in recent years we have been testing and treating more frequently for this bacteria. In this conversation with Dr Fabiola Martin, STI's Podcast editor, Dr Emma Sweeney, Prof Catriona Bradshaw and Prof Nicola Low provide a clinical and research update on MGEN. Dr Emma Sweeney is a Postdoctoral researcher, The University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, Brisbane, Australia. Prof Catriona Bradshaw is a Clinician researcher based at Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Melbourne, Australia. Prof Nicola Low is an Infectious disease epidemiologist, leading the Sexual and Reproductive Health Research Group at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Switzerland.
Read the blog post: https://blogs.bmj.com/sti/2022/04/06/mgen/
Some relevant papers published by STI:
Adverse pregnancy and perinatal outcomes, 2022, Frenzer C, Egli-Gany D, Vallely L, et al. https://sti.bmj.com/content/early/2022/03/28/sextrans-2021-055352
Prevalence in different populations, 2018, Baumann L, Cina M, Egli-Gany D, et al. https://sti.bmj.com/content/94/4/255
Persistence, concordance, complications in non-pregnant people, 2019, Cina M, Baumann L, Egli-Gany D, et al. https://sti.bmj.com/content/95/5/328

NATSAL-COVID: Britain’s National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles

Today we focus on NATSAL and NATSAL COVID. These are Britain’s National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles.
NATSAL has been undertaken every 10 years since 1990 and is a key data source for sexual and reproductive health policy development. However, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many aspects of sexual lifestyles, prompting the initiation of the NATSAL-COVID study with the aim of understanding the impact of COVID-19 on sexual behaviour and service use.
Professor Cath Mercer and Professor Nigel Field join us to discuss the results of this study.
All the findings relate to the first four months of lockdown in Britain, which started in March 2020.
Related blog: https://blogs.bmj.com/sti/2022/02/23/natsal-covid-sex-love-and-lockdown/
Relevant Natsal-COVID papers:
- STI paper on sexual behaviour during the pandemic: https://sti.bmj.com/content/early/2021/12/14/sextrans-2021-055210
- Paper in Lancet PH on sexual health services: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(21)00253-X
- Paper in BMJ Open on sex outside of the household: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/2/e055284
- Natsal-COVID wave 1 method paper: https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/6-209

World Human T Leukaemia Virus Day: patient, clinician and scientist’s perspectives

On the World HTLV Day (10th November), we focus on how the Human T leukaemia virus affects people, and review new developments in HTLV treatment and vaccination medicine. HTLV is a retrovirus similar to HIV which incorporates its DNA indefinitely into the human CD4 T lymphocytes. It is predominantly transmitted through condomless sex, but also from mother-to-child and through contact with HTLV positive blood. Unlike HIV, HTLV causes severe disease only in about 5% of PLHTLV, so it is easy for HTLV transmission to go unnoticed. The two dominant HTLV associated diseases are Adult T cell leukaemia (ATL) and HTLV-1 associated myelopathy (HAM/TSP).
Participants:
STI's Podcast Editor, Dr Fabiola Martin, interview Ms Kristy Blakeborough, Lived experience and UK patient rep; Prof Yoshihisa Yamano, Neurologist St Marianna University Japan; A/P Keith Chappell, University of Queensland.
Read the blog post: https://blogs.bmj.com/sti/2021/11/10/world_htlv_day/
Other relevant links:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2818%2930974-7/fulltext https://gvn.org/who/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27965813/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33250897/
https://www.htlvaware.com

Impact of HIV infection on COVID-19 clinical outcome

In this podcast we discuss the reported impact of HIV infection on people who are hospitalised with COVID-19, by reviewing three publications:
1. Outcomes of COVID-19 Related Hospitalization Among People With HIV in the ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterization Protocol: A Prospective Observational Study. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 23 October 2020 (https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-2019-nCoV-Clinical-HIV-2021).
2.Epidemiology and outcomes of COVID-19 in HIV-infected individuals: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Nature, Scientific Reports, 18 March 2021 (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-85359-3).
3. Clinical features and prognostic factors of COVID-19 in people living with HIV hospitalized with suspected or confirmed SARS has just been released. WHO Global Clinical Platform, 15 July 2021 (https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa1605/5937133).
STI's Podcast Editor, Dr Fabiola Martin, interviews Prof Anna Maria Garretti, Diseases at the Policlinico Tor Vergata, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Chair of the British HIV Association Vaccination Guidelines Panel, and Editor in Chief of the STI Journal; and Associated Research Professor Dr Paddy Ssentongo, from the Penn State University, Pennsylvania, USA.
Read the blog post: https://blogs.bmj.com/sti/2021/09/16/c19-plwh-revisited/

2021 World Hepatitis Day

On World Hepatitis Day 2021, we discover how Australian patients, patient advocates and health care providers are working together to reach the WHO elimination targets for chronic Hepatitis C virus infection.
Professor Gail Matthews, Infectious Diseases Physician and Program Head of Therapeutic Research and Vaccine Program at The Kirby Institute, Ms Carrie Fowlie, CEO of Hepatitis Australia, and Ms Lisa Carter, Patient advocate and peer educator at Hepatitis SA, join Dr Fabiola Martin to discuss the many different approaches needed to eliminate hepatitis C.
Related blog post: https://blogs.bmj.com/sti/2021/07/27/world-hepatitis-day-2021/

STI and HIV 2021 World Congress: taking virtual and accessibility to another level

July 2021 marks 40 years from the first reports of a 'strange disease' soon to be known as HIV/Aids. In this "very special edition" themed Sexual Diversity and the City, the STI & HIV 2021 World Congress is inviting people from all walks of life, with some being able to participate for free.
Listen to all the details in this conversation of STI's Social Media Editor Harrison Austin with Henry de Vries, Professor of skin infections at the University of Amsterdam and President of the Congress, and Mark Vermeulen, Executive Director of Aidsfonds – Soa Aids Nederland.
Sexually Transmitted Infections (https://sti.bmj.com/) is the official journal of the STI & HIV 2021 World Congress, held as a virtual event on 14-17 July. The mission is to address diversity, health, and sexuality in the urban context. This bi-annual meeting is organised by the International Society for STD Research (ISSTDR) in collaboration with the International Union against STI World (IUSTI World) and is dedicated to STI in its broadest sense.
https://www.stihiv2021.org/