AVAC: Advocates’ guide to DoxyPEP

Earlier this month, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released much-needed clinical guidelines on how and when to prescribe an oral antibiotic, doxycycline, as post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent acquisition of some bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs) after sex, so called “DoxyPEP”.

Doxycycline is relatively inexpensive, easily tolerated, and widely available. It’s a promising tool to prevent bacterial STIs, including chlamydia and syphilis. However, many questions remain, including how DoxyPEP should be implemented equitably, if it is effective among cisgender women, and how it might impact the STI rates in low- and middle-income countries.

AVAC’s new Advocates’ Guide to Doxycycline to Prevent Bacterial STIs (DoxyPEP) highlights the many DoxyPEP advocacy needs and considerations and covers an update on what the data do and don’t say, what needs to be known about this promising strategy for STI prevention and what critical questions remain that require advocacy and action.

DoxyPEP alone is not a complete solution to the escalating epidemic of STIs. But in a field with few recent innovations and limited investments in new prevention, detection, and treatment tools, DoxyPEP holds important potential. Today’s research, implementation, and policy decisions about DoxyPEP can shape the path for much-needed STI research and development in the future.

Download the Advocates’ guide