A new Pa. law is giving doctors greater freedom to treat people with sexually transmitted diseases

A new law went into effect Friday making it easier for people with a sexually transmitted diseases to get treatment for a partner without that person having to see a doctor first.

The approach, called expedited partner therapy (EPT), allows a person with a diagnosed STD to ask a doctor for a prescription for a sex partner, and the doctor can fill that prescription without evaluating the partner, or even knowing that person’s name, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported. A doctor can fill out a script addressed simply to “EPT,” and a pharmacist will fill it. The person the prescription is meant for can pick it up at a pharmacy anonymously or can have their partner pick it up.

Ideally, the person who will take the prescription will pick it up in person, said Sarah Wood, an attending physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an assistant professor of pediatrics at University of Pennsylvania. A face-to-face conversation with a pharmacist ensures the person hears important information about potential allergic reactions and can lead to discussions of other STD protections, including HIV tests.

“When those medications are given, we still want to make our best effort to make sure that partner is getting information as well,” she said.

EPT is particularly useful for people exposed to chlamydia and gonorrhea, which are both common diseasess and can be treated with antibiotics, and is an important tool for containing the spread of these illnesses.

Teens and young adults are at particularly high risk of exposure to STDs. The highest rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia infections are among people ages 15 to 24, the CDC reported.

Health experts see EPT as an effective way to ensure those young people get treated and don’t contribute to the infections’ spread. Teenagers might not know where to get treatment, fear telling a parent about an infection, or lack transportation to get to a medical provider, Wood said.

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Pennsylvania reports about 60,000 new cases of chlamydia and 16,000 new cases of gonorrhea annually, according to a 2021 CHOP report. Philadelphia has the highest rate of STDs in the state. If untreated, these infections can lead to issues such as pelvic inflammatory disease, greater risk of HIV transmission, infertility, ectopic pregnancy, and miscarriage.

Former Gov. Tom Wolf signed the legislation in November protecting a physician’s right to prescribe treatments through EPT. Before that, nothing in Pennsylvania law prohibited the practice, but no law explicitly stated it was legal, either, Wood said. That legal gray area, she said, made some health systems, including CHOP, reluctant to include EPT as part of its recommended procedures.

“It has made it difficult,” Wood said, “for health systems to really feel ready to roll this out as institutional policy.”

CHOP is now in the process of updating its policies, she said.

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Giving doctors clear authority to help the partners of patients with sexually transmitted infections can be effective, studies show.

In a 2013 study, the CDC found that among patients with gonorrhea, more than 13% reported receiving EPT in states where the practice was supported by law, compared to more than 5% in states where the practice was merely permitted. States without EPT legislation saw increased rates of chlamydia, a 2018 study from University of Michigan found.

EPT is not a new idea in STD prevention, and laws explicitly permit its use in all but four states, Puerto Rico, and Guam, according to the CDC.