The Professional Guidelines and Public Health Practice Division, Centre for Communicable Diseases and Infection Control, of the Public Health Agency of Canada is pleased to provide you with an electronic copy of the revised Gonococcal Infections chapter of the Canadian Guidelines on Sexually Transmitted Infections (Canadian STI Guidelines).
The content of the chapter is based on current evidence and expert opinion. It has been revised to include up-to-date information on antimicrobial resistance; treatment recommendations to promote antimicrobial stewardship and to slow the emergence and spread of cephalosporin-resistant gonorrhea in Canada; recommendations for when culture should be considered for screening and/or test of cure; as well as guidance for practitioners related to how to manage suspected treatment failure.
The Canadian STI Guidelines are developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada with input from professionals from across Canada, who provide laboratory, infectious disease, clinical and public health expertise on a volunteer basis. The first edition of the STI Guidelines was published in 1989 as a supplement to the Canadian Diseases Weekly Report for the Syndromic Management of Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Children, Adolescents and Adults. The STI Guidelines were expanded in 1992, 1995, 1998 and 2006. In response to significant increases in reported rates of STI; changing epidemiology; advances in laboratory diagnostics; and emerging antimicrobial resistance, an evergreen binder version was released in 2008.
This revised chapter is intended to provide information to public health and clinical professionals and does not supersede any provincial/territorial legislative, regulatory, policy and practice requirements or professional guidelines that govern the practice of health professionals in their respective jurisdictions, whose recommendations may differ due to local epidemiology or context.
Other chapters have been affected as a result of the revisions to the gonococcal infections chapter, and by changes in recommendations since the 2010 version. The Agency will not be providing print copies of the gonococcal infections chapter nor the other affected chapters. Going forward, guideline users will be provided a summary of key changes and considerations for clinical practice – you should receive this electronically in the coming months. If you are not currently subscribed to the e-mail notification for updates and important alerts related to the STI Guidelines, please follow this link to complete your subscription: http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/std-mts/sti-its/email-eng.php
The Public Health Agency of Canada’s web publishing process has been temporarily altered until the end of July 2013 so that the Agency can meet a court order obligation to make the Agency’s web site accessible. This temporary process prevents the web posting of the updated Gonococcal Infections chapter at this time, therefore, you will find attached two .PDF versions. One is a version that has been formatted with the same “look and feel” as the STI Guidelines; the other version is a readable PDF for the visually impaired.
If you require help on accessing alternative formats, such as Portable Document Format (PDF), Microsoft Word and Powerpoint (PPT) files, the Agency website contains a page with an alternate format help section (http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/pdf-eng.php).
REGULAR PDF(GONOCOCCAL INFECTIONS JULY 2013.pdf)
READABLE PDF (ACCESSIBLE VERSION – GONOCOCCAL INFECTIONS JULY)