Work

Kiss Around and Find Out: Kissing as a Risk Factor for Pharyngeal Gonorrhea

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: What do we know about the role of kissing in gonorrhea transmission?Evidence suggests that gonorrhea transmission via kissing is possible, but we do not know if it is a relatively rare event or if it is one of the main drivers of gonorrhea transmission.[1][2][3] In this issue, Charleson and colleagues 4 provide a systematic review of studies of kissing as a risk factor for pharyngeal gonorrhea and chlamydia.This important systematic review serves to summarize and highlight some of the available evidence of kissing as a possible route of gonorrhea and chlamydia transmission.The authors of the review are at the forefront of this field of investigation, and many were co-authors on 4 [5][6][7][8] of the 6 studies included in the review.Of the 6 studies in the review, 5 studies 5-9 focused on pharyngeal gonorrhea and one focused on pharyngeal chlamydia.10 All 5 studies of gonorrhea found that self-reported kissing was significantly associated with pharyngeal gonorrhea, and this significant association remained after adjusting for cofounders in 2 of the studies.Notably, in the 2 studies 5,8 in which kissing remained an independent risk factor for pharyngeal gonorrhea after controlling for other types of sexual behavior, there was evidence of a "dose-dependent" relationship with an increasing risk of pharyngeal gonorrhea with an increasing number of kissing partners.However, these 2 studies 5,8 had 2 important limitations that were not highlighted in the Charleson review.First, these 2 studies examined the association between prevalence of pharyngeal infection and reported sexual behaviors in the past 3 months.The 3-month exposure period was based on the thought that pharyngeal gonorrhea was an infection of relatively short duration, consistent with available data at the time the studies were conducted.However, a recent study by Barbee and colleagues 11 found the median duration of untreated pharyngeal gonorrhea is 4 months, thus the exposure period of 3 months

Source: Sexually Transmitted Diseases

DOI: 10.1097/olq.0000000000001816

Authors: Harrell W. Chesson, Kyle T. Bernstein, Lindley A. Barbee

Institutions: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for HIV/AIDS Viral Hepatitis STD and TB Prevention, Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services

Language: English

Topic: Reproductive tract infections research

Subfield: Microbiology

Field: Immunology and Microbiology

Domain: Life Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institutes of Health