![]() These laws typically specify the STDs for which EPT is authorized as well as the health care professionals who are authorized to conduct EPT. For example, a few states feature statutes or regulations that directly authorize some health care professionals to conduct EPT. While these provisions may be limited in their application, they may effectually either authorize or prohibit EPT in specific circumstances. Section I includes statutory or regulatory provisions that specifically address whether a health care provider may provide a prescription for a patient’s partner without a prior evaluation or relationship with the partner. Existing statutes/regulations that specifically address the ability of authorized health care providers to provide a prescription for a patient’s partner(s) without prior evaluation for certain STDs.Sections I – VII categorize key legal provisions implicating EPT as follows: Assessment of tribal laws for sovereign nations was also not undertaken. Assessment of local statutes was not undertaken, with the exception of the District of Columbia. The data and assessment are intended to be used as a tool to assist state and local health departments as they determine locally appropriate ways to control STDs. Measuring the legal weight of non-binding legal sources, such as policy guidance documents or administrative decisions, must be done locally within the context of applicable statutes and regulations. Rather, it provides a comparative snapshot of legal provisions that may highlight legislative, regulatory, judicial laws and policies concerning EPT based on currently available information. ![]() The information presented here is not legal advice, nor is it a comprehensive analysis of all the legal provisions that could implicate the legality of EPT in a given jurisdiction. The results of this research, with explanatory information for six key areas of inquiry and summary conclusions for each state are presented here. The primary research objective was to conceptualize, frame, and identify legal provisions that implicate a clinician’s ability to provide a prescription for a patient’s sex partner, without prior evaluation of that partner, for purposes of treating an STD (specifically chlamydia or gonorrhea). To assist state and local STD programs in their efforts to implement EPT as an additional partner services tool, CDC collaborated with the Center for Law and the Public’s Health external icon at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities to assess the legal framework concerning EPT across all 50 states and other jurisdictions (the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico). Throughout discussions of EPT, the legal status of the practice remained an area of uncertainty. ![]() In August 2006, CDC recommended the practice of EPT for certain populations and specific conditions and CDC continues to recommend it in Sexually Transmitted Diseases Treatment Guidelines, 2010. ![]() ![]() After evaluating multiple studies involving EPT, CDC concluded that EPT is a “useful option” to further partner treatment, particularly for male partners of women with chlamydia or gonorrhea pdf icon. Clinicians (e.g., physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, public health workers) provide patients with sufficient medications directly or via prescription for the patients and their partners. EPT is the delivery of medications or prescriptions by persons infected with an STD to their sex partners without clinical assessment of the partners. However, for STDs other than syphilis, partner management based on provider referral is rarely assured, while patient referral has had only modest success in assuring partner treatment.Īn alternative approach to assuring treatment of partners is expedited partner therapy (EPT). Initially developed to help control syphilis, partner management became widely recommended for gonorrhea, chlamydial infection and, most recently, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Traditional practices to inform, evaluate and treat sex partners of persons infected with STDs have relied upon patients or health care providers to notify partners of infected persons of their exposure to an STD. EPT is permissible in 46 states:ĮPT is potentially allowable in 4 states:ĮPT is permissible in the District of Columbia.ĮPT is permissible in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.ĮPT is potentially allowable in Puerto Rico and Guam.Īssuring treatment of the sex partners of persons with sexually transmitted diseases (STD) has been a central component of prevention and control of bacterial STDs in the United States for decades. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |