Cheap ‘morning-after’ pill could curb STD surge, CDC says

A cheap antibiotic could help slow the growing US epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, researchers say.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is drafting recommendations to consume doxycycline — used to treat bacterial infections and prevent malaria — to stave off STDs, said Dr. Leandro Mena, director of the agency’s STD prevention division.

The re-imagination of the medication — which would be taken like a morning-after pill — comes as the CDC reports more than 2.5 million people were diagnosed with chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis in 2021.

“Sexually transmitted infections are an enormous, low-priority public health problem,” said Dr. John M. Douglas Jr., a retired health official who lectures at the Colorado School of Public Health.

“And they’ve been a low-priority problem for decades, in spite of the fact that they are the most commonly reported kind of infectious disease.”

The effectiveness of doxycycline is the focus of a study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Scientists in San Francisco and Seattle found taking a 200-milligram pill of doxycycline within three days of unprotected sex reduced bacterial STIs, specifically gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis, by two-thirds every three months.

The yearlong study followed 500 gay men, bisexual men and transgender women with prior STD infections.

Researchers noted there are limitations to the drug, such as it is ineffective in heterosexual women and it can cause side effects such as stomach problems, sun sensitivity and rashes.

Dr. Philip Andrew Chan, who is consulting with the CDC on the doxycycline recommendations, noted the medicine will not “be a magic bullet,” describing it instead as “another tool” in combatting the STD epidemic.

“We do need new approaches, new innovations” to tackle the widespread problem, he said.

The Post reached out to the CDC for comment.

In the meantime, researchers are touting the findings of their study of doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis (Doxy-PEP).

“Doxy-PEP is a promising strategy to reduce sexually transmitted infections in populations that are disproportionately affected by high rates of sexually transmitted infections, specifically, men who have sex with men and transgender women who have had recent STIs,” Dr. Connie Celum, professor of global health, medicine, and epidemiology at the University of Washington, said in a statement.

“It will be important to monitor the impact of doxy-PEP on antibiotic resistance over time and weigh this against the demonstrated benefit of reduced STIs.”

The results could be good news for New Yorkers, with new data from the NYC health department showing STDs spiked significantly across the city following the lifting of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.

The agency’s stats show chlamydia cases rose 10% between 2020 and 2021, for example, while the rate of women diagnosed with primary and secondary syphilis surged by 28.7%.