Partner-delivered medication for sexually transmitted infections: findings from Brazil

Notifying and treating sexual partners of women or men diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection (STI) is imperative to reducing STI transmission.

As part of a study to examine the introduction of home-based STI testing and rapid-point-of-care diagnostics in a low income population of women in São Paulo, Brazil, we offered 108 women diagnosed with an STI the opportunity to contact partner(s) herself have a clinician contact partner(s) or provide her with medication for partner(s).

Offering partner-delivered medication to women with gonorrhea, chlamydia and/or trichomoniasis, in addition to the standard referral strategies, resulted in high rates of partner treatment, with 80 percent of reported male partners and 96 percent of notified male partners treated. Type of partnership strongly predicted whether the partner was successfully treated. More than half of women interviewed reported partner-delivered medication as their first choice for partner notification in the future.

As diagnostic capability for STIs improves in Brazil and other Latin America countries, offering expanded options for partner notification will be an important tool to reduce infection rates. Partner-delivered therapy should be prioritized as it increases the number of partners treated. Introduction of this method will require discussions with providers to remove potential barriers to implementation.