Doxycycline

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico--( BUSINESS WIRE )--MISTR, the largest telemedicine provider offering free online STI testing, PrEP, DoxyPEP, and long-term HIV care in all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico, has reached its most significant growth milestone yet, serving over 500 thousand patients nationwide. This accomplishment underscores the company’s commitment to delivering accessible HIV/STI prevention and treatment to historically underserved communities at zero cost. This comes at a time when STI rates remain a persistent public health concern, with over 2.4 million cases of syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia diagnosed and reported in 2023. Since the introduction of DoxyPEP to the general public in 2022, providers across the country have reported up to 50% decreases in bacterial STI diagnoses. Aside from MISTR’s flagship offering of HIV prevention & long-term HIV care, the introduction of DoxyPEP demand has skyrocketed, with over 74 percent of MISTR’s patients requesting the medication since launching in April of 2024. Prior to offering DoxyPEP, the STI positivity rate among MISTR patients was 12.42 percent, which has now dropped to 6.16 percent. This significant decrease emphasizes MISTR’s pivotal role in improving sexual health across the U.S. “This milestone is a testament to the dedicated work that my team and our community have made towards stopping the spread of HIV and promoting safe sex practices,” said Tristan Schukraft, Founder and CEO of MISTR. “As a member of the LGBTQ+ community myself, this cause has always remained close to my heart. I’d like to think that MISTR is on a mission to safeguard the health of present and future generations.” This landmark achievement comes on the heels of MISTR’s strategic partnership with Walmart stores in Georgia. The providers collaborated to offer free test kits at seven locations to combat the growing prevalence of HIV/STIs diagnoses in the state. MISTR aims to amplify its impact in 2025 by forging new partnerships and leveraging its storefront locations in West Hollywood, New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, and Wilton Manors. ABOUT MISTR: MISTR is the largest telemedicine platform offering free online access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and long-term HIV care in all 50 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Gay owned and operated, MISTR has brought together a network of the best doctors, pharmacists, and problem solvers to make PrEP, DoxyPEP and long-term HIV care available to all who need it. No doctor’s office, no paperwork and free delivery. Visit www.mistr.com .

TUESDAY, Jan. 7, 2025 -- Worried about the risky sex you had last night? Using a common antibiotic following sex can dramatically reduce a person’s risk of some sexually transmitted infections (STIs), a new study says. Taking doxycycline within 72 hours after sex reduced risk of chlamydia by 79%, syphilis by 80%, and gonorrhea by 12%, results published in JAMA Internal Medicine show. This is one of the first real-world studies to show the effectiveness of the tactic called doxyPEP, for doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis, researchers said. “Interventions that are effective in clinical trials don’t always end up working in real-world settings, where people tend to face more barriers to consistent medication use,” lead investigator Michael Traeger , a research fellow at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, said in a news release from the college. “We were excited to see that doxyPEP users in our study experienced declines in chlamydia and syphilis comparable to those observed in clinical trials,” Traeger continued. The study involved patients with Kaiser Permanente Northern California, a health system that began offering doxyPEP to gay and bisexual men in Nov. 2022 after San Francisco issued guidelines supporting the tactic. Of nearly 12,000 people being treated for HIV, nearly one in five -- more than 2,250 -- received doxyPEP within its first year of availability, researchers found. The team then looked at STI test results before and after doxyPEP became available, to see how the tactic might have affected risk. They found a dramatic reduction in chlamydia and syphilis thanks to doxyPEP, and a slightly lower but significant reduction in gonorrhea infections. Quarterly syphilis rates decreased from 1.7% prior to doxyPEP availability to 0.3% afterward, while quarterly chlamydia rates declined from 9.6% to 2%. Quarterly gonorrhea infections dropped from 10.2% to 9%. At the same time, syphilis and chlamydia rates among those not prescribed doxyPEP remained stable, researchers noted. “Since we started offering doxyPEP to our patients, our clinicians have seen a marked decline in both positive STI test results and the number of patients needing treatment after an STI exposure,” researcher Dr. Jonathan Volk , an infectious disease specialist with the Permanente Medical Group, said in a news release. “But the reduction in gonorrhea in our study was modest, underscoring the importance of regular STI testing for patients using doxyPEP,” Volk added. The approach isn’t without its concerns, including whether frequent use of doxycycline could lead to increased antibiotic resistance among STIs, researchers noted. “In the meantime, our study suggests that broader implementation of doxyPEP could have tremendous benefits for reducing STI transmission and improving sexual health,” senior researcher Julia Marcus , an associate professor of population medicine at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, concluded in the news release. Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.