Treating Patients and their Sexual Partners

Oct 15, 2008 by Elizabeth Ziegler

STD Bill Goes Before the Health and Human Services Interim Committee today

(KCPW News) A bill next session could let doctors give people with STDs a double-dose of medicine to also treat their sexual partners without an examination. The practice is called expedited partner therapy and Salt Lake County Rep. Jen Seelig says it could help slow the skyrocketing number of Utahns diagnosed with gonorrhea and Chlamydia.

"I believe that we actually owe it to our young people to help prevent these catastrophic diseases from eliminating their ability to have a family of their own," Seelig says. "And providing a simple antibiotic for someone's partner, if again the medical practitioner feels it is in the best interest of everyone involved, will help us in the war on these diseases."

STD rates are rising faster than the national average throughout Utah. Both gonorrhea and Chlamydia often go undetected and can cause infertility. Seeling says other states have enacted similar legislation, including New Mexico, Washington and California. She adds it's also recommended by the Department of Health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Medical Association and the American Bar Association.

The Democrat has worked for the past four months drafting the bill. She's reached out across the aisle to Rep. John Dougall, a Utah County Republican. But he's still skeptical. What bothers him isn't giving extra medicine to people with STDs. He wants to expand the bill to include a wider variety of communicable diseases.

"Even like strep throat, etcetera, etcetera. I mean, you know we have these things that for some reason say you have to go see the doctor," Dougall says. "Well, the simple fact is you've got it. Everyone in your family has that risk. Therefore, why funnel everybody through the doctor. Why funnel everybody through the doctor. Why can't we just let the doctor use his best judgment to prescribe the appropriate medication?"

Dougall fears the fact the bill deals specifically with two sexually transmitted diseases could overshadow the larger policy decision, whether to loosen regulations for physicians. Dougall and other members of the Health and Human Services Interim Committee will consider the proposal this afternoon.

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