Analysis of Field Delivered Therapy for Chlamydia and Gonorrhea in Maricopa County

Abstract

Chlamydia and gonorrhea are among the most frequently reported infectious diseases in the United States. These two diseases are easily treated with antibiotics; however, challenges exist in providing treatment to cases and their sexual partners. Maricopa County implemented a Field Delivered Therapy (FDT) protocol to treat chlamydia and gonorrhea cases and contacts in 2009. Ultimately, this project sought to inform other public health departments across the United States regarding the benefits of FDT program to treat gonorrhea and chlamydia and provide better insight on how to treat the two most commonly reported infectious diseases. Existing data was analyzed from April 1, 2011 to October 31, 2014 (42 months) for all patients that received FDT in Maricopa County utilizing pharmacy records and electronic health records (PRISM and eClinicalWorks). The following pieces of information were collected from these data sources: gender, age, race/ethnicity, diagnosis, number of partners, and time to treatment. The data were then divided into four FDT groups (FDT, expedited partner therapy via FDT, FDT attempted and FDT planned). There were 172 patients in this analysis; 140 diagnosed or in contact with chlamydia and 16 diagnosed or in contact with gonorrhea. There were 79 patients (45.9%) in the FDT group, 28 (16.3%) in the FDT EPT group, 28 (16.3%) in the FDT attempted and 37 (21.5%) in the FDT planned group. The median age of these patients was 23.8 (range 16.6‐31); 111 (64.5%) were female. The median time to treatment for these patients was 24.6 days (range 0‐64.5 days). Most patients (79.6%) lived outside of central Phoenix. The median number of sexual partners reported by these patients was 6.6 (range 1‐19.7 partners). A majority of the patients were <25 years old, except for in the FDT EPT group where 100% of patients were >25 years old. And the group with the largest <19‐year‐old population (32%) was in the FDT group. All the groups had a female majority, except in the FDT EPT group where 75% of the patients were male. Most patients in the FDT only group received testing at an outside hospital or outpatient clinic, while the FDT attempted and planned were more often tested at the STD clinic. Future Direction/Conclusion Many of the patients that received FDT are young women, some pregnant, that lived outside of Central Phoenix. However, a majority of the overall clients that received expedited partner therapy via FDT were male, a typically hard to reach population for treatment of potentially asymptomatic infections. This study demonstrates an effective method of delivering partner treatment to men. This study can be used to inform other public health departments about this novel practice and to help Maricopa County grow their FDT program to reach even more untreated patients.