The Way We Think About STI Prevention & Treatment Is Changing
Infection rates for bacterial sexually transmitted diseases (STIs) like syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea are on the rise, and gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men and transgender women are being disproportionately affected.
The waning effectiveness of conventional STI prevention tools like condoms and the potential development of serious complications from these STIs signals the need for new STI prevention strategies and tools.
Meet DISCO
Doxycycline as an Intervention for bacterial STI ChemOprophylaxis (or DISCO for short) is a new Canada-wide clinical study that aims to explore the use of doxycycline-based STI pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for the prevention of STIs in gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, transgender women and other gender-diverse people. It’s the first methodologically rigorous, prospective multicentre, open-label randomized controlled trial of its kind.
Beyond exploring efficacy, DISCO will also provide insight into the acceptability, tolerability and safety of therapy with doxycycline. We aim to provide health care providers one additional tool to address the burden of STIs in populations with an increased likelihood of infection.
