During sexual contact, you can get a sexually transmitted disease or sexually transmitted infection. Men are more prone to STDs. STD symptoms are quite obvious. If STD testing is not carried out in STD clinics, it can increase your risks of acquiring another STD such as Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This occurs because an STI can lead to an immune reaction in the genital organs or can cause aching sensations; they raise the threat of HIV transmission.
Today, HIV positive patients have admittance to many of powerful medications that can keep the virus at a distance. In, STD clinics three classes of drugs have appeared in the last five to 10 years as treatment foundation, these are:
- Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs)
- Protease inhibitors (PIs)
- Integrase inhibitors.
With so many effective medications to select from, clinicians have gone board with many long term clinical trials to contrast the safety, ability to tolerate and effectiveness of available treatments. Recently, many of these great studies have yielded outcomes that have considerably impacted our understanding of the best initial treatment in STD clinics.
In a conference at ICAAC/ICC 2015 in San Diego, University Health Network clinician Sharon Walmsley, M.D., offered her approach on “What to Start With for 2015.”
Everyone should take a start
Last year, the outcomes of the appropriately named START study toppled previously held ideas about which patients should begin treatment for STD symptoms. Previously, guidelines recommended that HIV positive patients with strong, functioning CD4+ cells (immune lymphocytes) should wait. Only once patients’, whose CD4+ count drops below 350 cells/mm3, would be recommended for cure. The START study asks, “Should we wait?” and the answer was ultimate. After STD testing, patients who started on extremely active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) right away were improved than patients who were told to hang around until their CD4+ was less than 350 cells/mm3. Because of this important trial, HAART should be accessible to any newly diagnosed patient in STD clinic.
Questioning the Gold Standard
For decades, the NNRTI efavirenz, when mixed with other medications to make the combo drug Atripla, has been measured the gold standard of care. It is still true today that the combination drug efavirenz/emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate is the most efficient medication available for treating STD symptoms.
Yet, recent data show that it is not as well accepted as some other drugs, and if patients can’t stay on medication because of negative effects, then strong effectiveness does not matter. In fact, due to a little but alarming number of patients who have experienced threats of suicide on efavirenz-based combinations, experts are of the view that this drug should be moved to a second choice of the best medication to start with for the treatment of STD symptoms.
Use of integrase Inhibitors and Drug Resistance
Recent effectiveness data on integrase inhibitors has been powerful, and this category of drugs is rapidly emerging as a preferred first choice for treatment of STDs in STD clinics. Integrase inhibitors are better tolerated over the period of time. For example, in comparison to a long term study with the integrase inhibitor raltegravir (Isentress) to efavirenz, over time raltegravir proved better because of its enhanced side effect profile. However, there is an alarm with integrase inhibitors, as the price of worsening with these drugs might be virological confrontation. It’s clear that if patients are worsening on an integrase inhibitor, they should visit STD clinics and change medication immediately to prevent from building up extra virological transformations.
There are many STD clinics for STD testing. STD symptoms can be treated by various drugs. It is your duty to identify the STD symptoms and visit the STD clinics for STD testing on right time.
Always visit https://www.shimclinic.com/singapore/std-testing for more info.
