Active clinical trials for "Sexually Transmitted Diseases"

The broad objective of this project is to test the efficacy of a theory-based HIV risk-reduction intervention, which includes both an adolescent component and parental component, designed to reduce the adolescents' risk of sexually transmitted HIV.

This study is comparing the impact of two teen pregnancy prevention interventions, Reducing the Risk and Love Note with a non-related training on community building to determine which is most effective for which participants in delaying sexual initiation, enhancing use of condoms and other forms of birth control, decreasing sexually transmitted diseases and decreasing the number of pregnancies. The participants were 1450 youth between the ages of 14 and 19 including those from poor urban settings, those from immigrant and refugee families and those from the foster care system. Both girls and boys were be in the study. The investigators predict that girls, immigrants and refugees and foster youth will have better outcomes when participating in Love Notes, a program focused on healthy relationship formation and maintenance as a frame for how to manage the sexual aspect of relationships while boys and urban youth will have better outcomes when participating in Reducing the Risk. Both groups will have better outcomes than those in the control condition.

Non-professional community leaders may be at a great advantage in reaching otherwise hard to reach populations for the purpose of advising on sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention (lay health advisors), health care access, and model health behavior. Latino migrant farm workers are at increased risk for STD and might benefit from such lay health advisors. The study will examine whether this strategy is a useful one for STD prevention in Latino migrant farm workers in rural and small town areas of North Carolina.

The purpose of this study is to see if taking medication once a month can help to decrease the risk of vaginal infections. Additionally, researchers will study whether personal habits, such as douching, bathing, and sexual practices can influence the risk of vaginal infections. Vaginal infections may influence the risk of becoming infected with HIV-1 and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Study participants will include 400 female prostitutes ages 16 and older, living in Mombasa. Study procedures will include sexual behavior questions, physical examinations including pelvic exams, testing of vaginal and cervical secretions for STDs, urine collection and blood samples. Participants will receive 2 different types of pills to treat vaginal infections (metronidazole or fluconazole) or placebo (contains no medication). Participants will be involved in study related procedures for 1 year and will return to the study clinic at one month intervals.

The purposes of this study are to determine whether Carraguard® Gel can prevent the transmission of HIV when used during vaginal intercourse, and to confirm that the gel is safe for vaginal use.

This is a randomized clinical trial assessing the efficacy of two types of counseling (Computer-Assisted Motivational Intervention [CAMI] versus Didactic Educational Counseling [DEC]) to see which can better reduce female adolescents' risk taking behaviors that put them at risk for unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The intervention phase consists of three 30-minute counseling sessions over the first 6 months followed by a visit every three months during the 12 month follow up phase. We, the researchers, hypothesize that the CAMI will decrease the proportion of subjects who engage in any intercourse that is poorly protected against pregnancy and against STDs.

The overall objective of the proposed research is to reduce the incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among college students. The investigators propose to accomplish this by using the innovative, engineering-inspired multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) to develop a highly effective, appealing, economical, and readily scalable internet-delivered behavioral intervention targeting the intersection of alcohol use and sexual risk behavior. The rate of STIs on college campuses is alarming: one in four college students is diagnosed with an STI at least once during their college experience. Sexual activity when drinking alcohol is highly prevalent among college students. Alcohol use is known to contribute to the sexual risk behaviors that are most responsible for the transmission of STIs, namely unprotected sex, contact with numerous partners, and "hook-ups" (casual sexual encounters). Few interventions have been developed that explicitly target the intersection of alcohol use and sexual risk behaviors, and none have been optimized. In order to reduce the incidence of STI transmission among this and other high-risk groups, a new approach is needed. MOST is a comprehensive methodological framework that brings the power of engineering principles to bear on optimization of behavioral interventions. MOST enables researchers to experimentally test the individual components in an intervention to determine their effectiveness, indicating which components need to be revised and re-tested. Given the high rates of alcohol use and sex among college students, the college setting provides an ideal opportunity for intervening on alcohol use and sexual risk behaviors. The proposed study will include a diverse population of college students on 4 campuses which will increase the generalizability of the findings. The specific aims are to (1) develop and pilot test an initial set of online intervention components targeting the link between alcohol use and sexual risk behaviors, (2) use the MOST approach to build an optimized preventive intervention, and (3) evaluate the effectiveness of the newly optimized preventive intervention using a fully powered randomized controlled trial (RCT). This work will result in a new, more potent behavioral intervention that will reduce the incidence of STIs among college students in the US, and will lay the groundwork for a new generation of highly effective STI prevention interventions aimed at other subpopulations at risk.

The goal of this prospective cohort study is to determine if a model of care including point-of-care testing, immediate therapy, expedited partner therapy and test of cure will result in a higher cure rate and a lower recurrence rate of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), with a subsequent reduction in genital inflammatory cytokines and hence HIV risk among young women in a high burden setting in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The study will identify individuals with STIs using the GeneXpert system for the simultaneous detection of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis, and Trichomonas vaginalis. Genital tract cytokines will be measured using Bio-Plex Pro Human Cytokine kits and a Bio-Plex MagPix Array Reader. Following point-of-care diagnosis, participants will be treated immediately with appropriate therapy under direct supervision, offering the participants expedited partner therapy for their partners. STI testing and cytokine assessments will be repeated after 6 and 12 weeks, to determine if these have decreased. Overall, this study will provide some evidence on whether this STI care model can have an impact on STI prevalence and genital tract inflammation, in a low- and middle-income country, where currently syndromic STI management is the standard of care.

P3 (Prepared, Protected, emPowered) is an interactive smartphone app for HIV-uninfected YMSM and YTW that utilizes social networking and game-based mechanics as well as a comprehensive understanding of what constitutes "best practices" in app development to improve PrEP adherence and persistence in PrEP care.

This two-arm cluster randomized trial tested a gender-focused comprehensive HIV testing and counselling (HTC) program, the Young Women's Health CoOp (YWHC) with a standard HTC program and targeted female adolescents (aged 16-19) who use substances and have dropped out of school. To evaluate the process, the study examined the feasibility of using peer role models as recruiters and co-facilitators of the intervention and monitored fidelity to the intervention. Efficacy of the intervention on behavioral and biological outcomes, and on linkages to health services, through follow-up visits conducted 6- and 12-months post-enrollment was also assessed.