Partner notification: harmonising the old with the new

In ‘27 years of uninterrupted contact tracing. The ‘Tyneside Scheme’’, Wigfield1 describes the first co-ordinated regional partner notification (PN) programme in the UK. Set up in 1943 to control gonorrhoea and syphilis, the approach provides a blueprint for good practice that is still pertinent today: a specialist team of contact—tracers supporting both patient and provider referral; diligent record keeping; co-operation between services to treat those out of area; prompt follow-up and evaluation of outcomes. A public health ethos underpinned their proactive approach: particular effort was devoted to tracing ‘source’ contacts—often casual partners less likely to be notified by the patient, but more likely to transmit to others. Outcomes revealed consistently impressive success rates over three decades: in 1945, 241 traceable women were sought, of whom 211 (88%) attended; in 1970, 308 women were sought, of whom 280 (91%) attended. Although PN remains a cornerstone of STI control, methods...
Source: Sexually Transmitted Infections - Category: Sexual Medicine Authors: Tags: Miscellaneous Source Type: research