A ‘morning after pill’ could slash soaring rates of sexually transmitted infection (STI), new research shows.
Those who took the common antibiotic, doxycycline, within 72 hours of having sex cut their chances of contracting syphilis and chlamydia by up to 80 per cent.
Experts have called for the medicine to be more widely available across the UK and the US.
In the UK, health chiefs currently refuse to offer it, while in the US, it is only available to high risk groups such as men who have sex with men and trans women.
The researchers suggested the pill could be a vital new weapon in the fight against rising STIs if unlikely to impact on antimicrobial resistance.
STI rates have surged in recent years, with changing sexual behaviours and treatment resistance believed to be behind the increase.
Rising divorce rates, the emergence of Viagra, dating apps and the growth of retirement villages have seen STI rates soar among baby boomers in recent years.
The trend has led to calls for new strategies to address poor sexual health, particularly among older generations who may have missed out on safe sex education.
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In the first ‘real world’ study of the drug’s potential with STIs, researchers from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute in the US gave it to 2,253 people already taking preventative HIV medication, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).
They looked at STI test results before and after taking the pills, also known as doxyPEP, to understand how it may have affected risk of acquiring STIs.
They found that incidence declined by 79 per cent for chlamydia, 80 per cent for syphilis, and 12 per cent for gonorrhoea, according to the findings published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Costing just a few pence, doxycycline is given on the NHS to people to treat bacterial conditions such as chest and dental infections, as well as STIs syphilis and chlamydia once they have an infection.
It is not yet used in the UK as a preventative treatment, despite growing noise surrounding it as a viable option for STI reduction.
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Lead author, Dr Michael Traeger, said he was ‘excited’ by the findings which show its potential effectiveness outside of clinicals settings.
‘Interventions that are effective in clinical trials don’t always end up working in real-world settings, where people tend to face more barriers to consistent medication use,’ he said.
Dr Julia Marcus, senior author of the study, said: ‘We know there are important questions that still need to be answered about doxyPEP, including its effects on antimicrobial resistance.
‘In the meantime, our study suggests that broader implementation of doxyPEP could have tremendous benefits for reducing STI transmission and improving sexual health.’
