The Changing Role of Disease Intervention Specialists in Modern Public Health Programs

Cope, Anna B.; Mobley, Victoria; Samoff, Erika; OʼConnor, Kevin; Peterman, Thomas A.

doi:10.1177/0033354918813549

Cited by 26 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Evidence from the earlier technological transition to the internet suggests that web-based personals substituted for in-person venues rather than increasing the total number of semi-anonymous contacts (18). DIS have difficulties identifying partners that index cases contacted only through partner-finding applications due to restrictions on using partner-finding applications for official government purposes (2). At the time of this study, many same-sex sexual contacts were facilitated by the internet, even without mobile telephone applications: a 2006 meta-analysis found 40% of MSM met partners on the internet and 30% had sex with someone they met on the internet (20), and 49% of rural males surveyed while attending urban Pride events in 2004-05 found partners via the internet (21).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The 2018 resurgence of syphilis and gonorrhea to the highest levels in over two decades concomitant with resource constraints requires innovative methods of control (1). Traditionally, disease intervention specialists (DIS) from state and local health departments review sexually transmitted infection (STI) cases to conduct sexual contact tracing, an approach known to yield incomplete information because index cases may not remember or may conceal some sexual partners (2).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Past research has augmented reported sexual contacts with reports of social contacts from in-person interviews (2), digital social media (7), and venue attendance (8). Partner notification yields incomplete information, especially for men who have sex with men (MSM), and remains challenging (9,10).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

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

Rosenbaum

Jennings

Ellen³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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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.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

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

Rosenbaum

Jennings

Ellen³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The resurgence of syphilis and gonorrhea to the highest levels in over two decades concomitant with resource constraints requires innovative methods of control (1). Traditionally, disease intervention specialists from state and local health departments review sexually transmitted infection (STI) cases to conduct sexual contact tracing, an approach known to yield incomplete information because index cases may not remember or may conceal some sexual partners (2). Contemporary partner noti cation approaches have used messaging through the internet and/or cellular phones, but a systematic review found low utilization and unclear impact on the number of identi ed cases (3,4): internet and text messaging partner noti cation for HIV exposure found eight additional HIV cases for 259 index cases (5).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Past research has used digital social media such as Facebook to contact sexual partners named in a traditional contact tracing process (7) and has augmented reported sexual contacts with reports of social contacts from in-person interviews (2) and venue attendance (8). Partner noti cation yields incomplete information, especially for men who have sex with men (MSM), and remains challenging (9,10).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Rosenbaum

Jennings

Ellen³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Syphilis and gonorrhea reached an all-time high in 2018. The resurgence of syphilis and gonorrhea requires innovative methods of sexual contact tracing that encourage disclosure of same-sex sexual contacts that might otherwise be suppressed. Over 75% of Grindr mobile phone application users report seeking “friendship,” so this study asked people diagnosed with syphilis and gonorrhea to identify their friends.Methods: Patients at the two Baltimore sexually transmitted infection (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 friendship 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 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 men who have sex with men (MSM) and women who have sex with women (WSW). Future research should evaluate whether this friendship network method of contact tracing can be implemented by adapting automated mobile phone COVID-19 contact tracing protocols, if these COVID-19 contact tracing methods are able to maintain anonymity and public trust.

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Reduced Risk of Syphilis Reinfection in Men Interviewed by Disease Intervention Specialists: A Pilot Study

McKellar¹,

Hou²

2023

AJPM Focus

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The Changing Role of Disease Intervention Specialists in Modern Public Health Programs

Cited by 26 publications

References 17 publications

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

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

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

Reduced Risk of Syphilis Reinfection in Men Interviewed by Disease Intervention Specialists: A Pilot Study

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