There’s a morning-after pill to prevent sexually transmitted infections Years after it was first proven to work, a new tool for preventing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is on the brink of entering mainstream medicine.To get more news about vigrx oil, you can visit vigrxplus-original.com official website. That tool is doxyPEP, an antibiotic that works like a morning-after pill — but instead of preventing pregnancy within hours of unprotected sex, it prevents STIs like chlamydia and syphilis. Ever since a 30-person trial first suggested hope for the strategy in 2015, people worldwide have begun trying doxyPEP for themselves, often without the approval or supervision of a medical provider. About 10 percent of men who have sex with men in Europe and Australia are using the medication, often purchasing it from online pharmacies or sources that don’t require a prescription, and Facebook groups for HIV PrEP users teem with testimonials and advice. But on October 21, the San Francisco health department became the first authority in the US to release guidance recommending doxyPEP for men with recent STIs — especially syphilis — and for those who’ve had recent sex with men or trans women. Sexually transmitted infections have been rising in recent years, with syphilis in particular spreading explosively, and doxyPEP could help turn back the tide. Rising STI rates are costing dollars and lives: The CDC estimates that the US spent $1.1 billion on bacterial STIs in 2018, and 166 infants died in 2021 as a consequence of a syphilis epidemic affecting women of childbearing age. And while San Fransisco is ready to roll out doxyPEP more broadly, public health agencies like the CDC haven’t yet issued full-throated recommendations in support of the pill’s use. What’s the holdup? Doxycycline, the medication in doxyPEP, is an antibiotic. Worldwide antibiotic resistance is a major problem — and doxyPEP runs the hypothetical risk of exacerbating it. Disease-causing bacteria can evolve resistance when exposed to certain antibiotics, becoming more dangerous. Among the experts I spoke to, there was no consensus about how to balance the risks of antibiotic resistance with the risks of STI infections. Some say dwelling too much on the resistance risk would deny marginalized groups the preventive options they need. “For some reason, with gay men’s sexual health, we are always placing these theoretical risks higher than what’s actually happening in the community,” said David Holland, an infectious disease doctor and public health expert at Emory University, during a recent talk at a medical conference. On the other hand, many experts are still cautious. “We just want to be very, very careful that before we start really ramping up the use of doxycycline, that we are being thoughtful about the potential ramifications, and that we really are looking at the data to make sure to understand how to optimize use,” said Philip Chan, a Brown University infectious disease doctor who directs the largest sexual health clinic in Rhode Island. DoxyPEP is making its way into the minds of providers and the hands of patients, even as debate continues about how to ensure it does more good than harm. Here’s why the drug isn’t the silver bullet it might seem to be, and why it’s nevertheless a source of hope for so many.