By Jason Gale | Bloomberg
San Francisco reversed some of the highest rates of syphilis and chlamydia in the US after county health officials recommended a low-cost tablet taken like a “morning-after pill.”
Two analyses published this week confirm that the low-cost antibiotic doxycycline taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex can help drive down diseases linked to infertility, birth defects, and dementia.
The success in northern California, particularly among gay and bisexual men and transgender women, underscores the potential of so-called doxyPEP to address one of public health’s most urgent challenges. In 2023 alone, 3,882 babies in the US contracted syphilis from their mothers either in utero or during delivery — a tenfold increase since 2013.
“We have the evidence now to show that it does work,” said Michael Traeger, a research fellow at Boston’s Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute.
Traeger co-authored a study in JAMA Internal Medicine that found doxyPEP users in northern California experienced a 79% reduction in positive tests for chlamydia, 80% for syphilis, and 12% for gonorrhea after starting the regimen.
