OROPHARYNGEAL TRANSMISSION OF NEISSERIA GONORRHOEAE AMONG MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN AND POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF MOUTHWASH

Abstract

Gonorrhoea notifications are rapidly rising in men who have sex with men (MSM). We developed a model to assess mouthwash as a novel intervention for gonorrhoea control. We developed a model of Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) transmission to explain anatomic site-specific prevalence of gonorrhoea among MSM. The model was calibrated to available epidemiological and behavioural data. We estimated the contribution of various sexual acts to gonorrhoea incidence and evaluate the potential impacts of screening scale-up and utilisation of mouthwash on the gonorrhoea epidemic. We calibrated the model to prevalence of oropharyngeal, anal and urethral gonorrhoea of 8.6% (7.7%–9.5%), 8.3% (7.4%–10.4%) and 0...