The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated treatment guidelines for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and said providers may consider opt-out screening for chlamydia and gonorrhea among adolescent and young adult females.
Opt-out screening allows healthcare providers to screen an entire population — unless an individual patient opts out of the process after being notified about the test during a routine medical appointment. The CDC said opt-out screening “might substantially increase screening, be cost-saving, and identify infections among patients who do not disclose sexual behavior,” the CDC said.
The last time the guidelines were updated was in 2015.
For the first time, CDC guidelines also defined specific populations (men with recurrent urethritis and women with recurrent cervicitis) to be tested for Mycoplasma genitalium and recommended nucleic-acid amplification testing (NAAT) for detection, according to Hologic, which commented on the guidelines in a news release.
