Doctors should help people with STIs tell their partners and family

Doctors should help people with sexually transmitted infections tell their partners and family they are infected, new official guidelines state.

The move, which applies to all healthcare workers in the UK, is hoped to stem the spread of STIS, amid a spike in cases of syphilis and gonorrhoea over the past year.

GPs can break the news on behalf of the infected person, if asked, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) – the NHS watchdog.

Sexual health experts have welcomed the body’s draft guidelines, warning STIs can pose ‘serious health consequences’, such as infertility, if left untreated.  

‘Partner notification may be undertaken by the healthcare professional or the person diagnosed with an STI,’ the document states.

It added: ‘Supporting people who have been diagnosed with an STI to notify their partners can help to reduce the transmission of STIs.

‘It can also ensure that their partners are tested, and if necessary treated, as soon as possible to prevent health complications.’

Nice also said health workers should ensure they are prepared to talk about ‘partner notification’ and to support people to inform their sexual partners.

Figures show there were 422,147 diagnoses of STIs made in England last year – with a 20 per cent spike in cases of syphilis and gonorrhoea.

The new quality standard by Nice, which has been put out to consultation, aims to improve the care for people accessing sexual health services.

It also states patients should be seen within 48 hours of requesting an appointment, to reduce the likelihood of them passing on infections and reduce complications.

The guidelines also recommend GPs quiz all patients on when they last had sex, who it was with and what type of sex it was.

Nice said the questions should be asked at ‘key points of contact’, such as when getting travel vaccinations or consultations on contraception. 

But Joyce Robins of Patient Concern told The Sun: ‘People will be quite shocked to be asked such intimate questions when seeing their GP for travel jabs. It’s intrusive.’

A Nice spokesman said: ‘It’s important partners of people diagnosed with an STI have the opportunity to be tested themselves and if necessary treated, in order to prevent the spread of infections and to reduce their risk of developing health complications.

‘That’s why our draft standard supports best practice in current sexual health services, that help and support should be provided to people who might otherwise find it difficult to tell their partners about their STI.’

Welcoming the new standard, Dr Diana Mansour, vice president for clinical quality for the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH), said: ‘One of the recommendations of the draft standard is that people diagnosed with an STI are encouraged to notify their partners.

‘FSRH strongly supports this recommendation so that STI morbidity is reduced in the community.

‘For healthcare professionals, this means supporting people to contact their own partners or to directly contact, test and treat partners of those with an STI without revealing the patient’s identity.

‘Partner notification can make patients feel uncomfortable. It might pose a strain in relationships new and old or cause embarrassment with more casual partners.

‘However, STIs can pose serious health consequences both to the patient and their partners such as infertility and pelvic inflammatory disease.

‘STI rates are on the rise, with a 20 per cent increase in syphilis cases in 2017 compared to 2016, so we encourage people to visit their local sexual and reproductive health clinic and be tested.’