The Presence or Absence of Symptoms Among Cases of Urethral Gonorrhoea Occurring in a Cohort of Men Taking Human Immunodeficiency Virus Pre-exposure Prophylaxis in the PrEPX Study

Lucy C Donovan; Christopher K Fairley; Ei T Aung; Michael W Traeger; Edwina J Wright; Mark A Stoové; Eric P F Chow

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofab263

The Presence or Absence of Symptoms Among Cases of Urethral Gonorrhoea Occurring in a Cohort of Men Taking Human Immunodeficiency Virus Pre-exposure Prophylaxis in the PrEPX Study

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2021 May 23;8(6):ofab263. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofab263. eCollection 2021 Jun.

Authors

Lucy C Donovan¹, Christopher K Fairley^{2

3}, Ei T Aung^{2

3}, Michael W Traeger^{4

5}, Edwina J Wright^{4

6

7}, Mark A Stoové^{4

5}, Eric P F Chow^{2

3

8}

Affiliations

¹ Prahran Market Clinic, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
² Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Alfred Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
³ Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
⁴ Disease Elimination Program, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
⁵ School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
⁶ Department of Infectious Diseases, Alfred Hospital, Monash Central Clinical School, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
⁷ Peter Doherty Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
⁸ Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Abstract

We aimed to estimate how often urethral gonorrhoea is symptomatic among men in the Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Expanded Victoria study. Eighty-seven percent of 213 cases of urethral gonorrhoea were symptomatic. Ensuring men with urethral gonorrhoea both recognize and present early for treatment is critical to reduce transmission.

Keywords: gonorrhoea; men who have sex with men; screening; sexually transmitted infection; urethritis.