Our findings add to the growing body of evidence supporting universal rectal screening in high-risk women such as those undergoing pelvic exams at STI clinics.

We sought to determine the prevalence of rectal chlamydia and gonorrhea after the introduction of nucleic acid amplification tests for screening in men reporting receptive anal intercourse. The rectal chlamydia prevalence was 14.1% (95% confidence interval, 11.9-16.3), and the gonorrhea prevalence was 5.9% (95% confidence interval, 4.4-7.3). Most cases were positive only from the rectum.

The implementation of express testing in an sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinic reduced the length of visit time compared with other visit types and increased the proportion of STIs diagnosed at clinic visits. Express testing did not impact the time to treatment for asymptomatic patients diagnosed as having an STI.

Our review of Neisseria gonorrhoeae pharyngeal treatment failures from sexually transmitted infection clinics in Alberta suggests that treatment failures with oral cefixime monotherapy were not related to elevated cefixime minimum inhibitory concentrations. Dual therapy with oral cefixime and azithromycin may be a suitable alternate for the treatment of pharyngeal gonorrhea.

Few studies have evaluated the feasibility of delivering syphilis point-of-care (POC) testing in outreach (nonclinical) settings in resource rich countries. The objectives of the study were to evaluate the feasibility and diagnostic performance of performing both HIV and syphilis POC testing in outreach settings and to document new cases identified in the study population. 1,265 outreach testing visits were offered syphilis and HIV POC testing and 81.5% (n = 1,031) consented to testing. In our population, the SD Bioline 3.0 Syphilis Test had a sensitivity of 85.3% [CI (68.9–95.0)], specificity of 100.0% [CI (99.6–100.0)], positive predictive value (PPV) of 100.0% [CI (88.1–100.0)], and negative predictive value (NPV) of 99.5% [CI (98.9–99.8)]. Test characteristics for the INSTI HIV-1/HIV-2 Antibody Test had a 100.0% sensitivity [CI (39.8–100.00], 99.8 specificity [CI (99.3–100)], 66.7% PPV [CI (22.3–95.7)], and 100.0% NPV [CI (99.6–100.0)]. Four new cases of syphilis and four new HIV cases were diagnosed. In summary, at risk population seeking STI testing found POC tests to be acceptable, the POC tests performed well in outreach settings, and new cases of syphilis and HIV were identified and linked to treatment and care.