Giving syphilis and gonorrhea to friends: Using in-person friendship networks to find additional cases of gonorrhea and syphilis

Abstract

Background: Syphilis and gonorrhea reached an all-time high in 2018, including in populations that stigmatize same-sex sexual contact. The resurgence of syphilis and gonorrhea requires innovative methods of sexual contact tracing that encourage disclosure of same-sex contacts. Over 75% of Grindr users report seeking “friendship,” so this study asked people diagnosed with syphilis and gonorrhea to identify their friends.Methods: Patients at the two Baltimore STI clinics and the Baltimore City Health Department were asked 12 questions to elicit members of their friendship networks before eliciting sexual networks. The study included 353 index cases and 172 contacts, yielding a friendship network of 331 non-isolates (n=331) and sexual-only network of 140 non-isolates. The data were plotted and analyzed using exponential family random graph analysis.Results: Eliciting respondents’ in-person social contacts yielded 12 syphilis cases and 6 gonorrhea cases in addition to the 16 syphilis cases and 4 gonorrhea cases that would have been found with sexual contacts alone. Syphilis is clustered within sexual (odds ratio=2.2, 95% confidence interval (1.36, 3.66)) and social contacts (OR=1.31, 95% CI (1.02, 1.68)). Gonorrhea is clustered within reported social (OR=1.56, 95% CI (1.22, 2.00)) but not sexual contacts (OR=0.98, 95% CI (0.62, 1.53)). Conclusions: Eliciting the friendship networks of people diagnosed with syphilis and gonorrhea may find members of their sexual networks, drug use networks, or people of similar STI risk. Friendship networks include more diagnosed cases of syphilis and gonorrhea than sexual networks alone, especially among populations with many non-disclosing MSM and WSW.

Prevention of transfusion‐transmitted syphilis by blood operators: How much is enough when transfusion‐transmission has not been identified for decades?

“…In the US state of Missouri, nonurban areas reported a higher percentage of individuals with early syphilis who used injection drugs than did urban areas 24 . Sexual networks that allow for the spread of syphilis and other sexually transmitted infections may be complex and include individuals who remain inapparent on a first analysis 25 . Sexual network complexity may also facilitate the spread of syphilis with individuals who have partners in multiple geographic locations acting as “spatial network bridges.” 26 In light of these trends in epidemiology, blood operators should determine how similar their donor population is to the general population impacted by syphilis outbreaks.…”

Syphilis Trigram: a domain-specific visualisation to combat syphilis epidemic and improve the quality of maternal and child health in Brazil

“…Regarding the state-of-the art, Rosenbaum et al [ 11 ] and Doherty et al [ 12 ] used graphs to represent the social networks of syphilis transmission. Due to the pattern of the transmission, this analysis of social networks can contribute to the understanding of the propagation process in a given geolocation.…”