What steps do you take to ensure that partners of patients diagnosed with chlamydia receive treatment?

This is an important question. A lot of "re-infections" occur because partners aren't treated.

In my clinical practice, and from a public health perspective, we really try to get the partner(s) into *our clinic* to get treated. We have a walk-in STI program and try our best to get the patient to tell their partners and to make sure they get tested/treated- whether it is with us or elsewhere!

While I have done it and currently do it occasionally, I do believe that expedited partner therapy is a sec...

Partner notification and treatment are aspects of STI control that deserve more time and attention during medical school and residency training. The traditional approach had been to ask your patient in whom you diagnosed the STI (chlamydia, in this case) to inform their partner that they need to be tested and treated. Because this did not reliably occur (partner seeking testing and treatment), reinfection rates in patients have been historically (and remain) high, and this is the basis for the C...

In principle, partners should be referred for in-person care, diagnostic testing, and treatment with doxycycline. Expedited partner therapy (EPT) -- i.e. arranging for treatment of partners sight unseen -- is an appropriate option when in-person care isn't practical or acceptable. (I know a thing or two about it. I led CDC's analysis and development of recommendations for EPT as a visiting scientist in 2005.) EPT is explicitly permitted by law or allowed by implication in all 50 states. That the...