Reducing antimicrobial resistance of treatable sexually transmitted infections in antenatal care

Overview

Over 374 million global cases of curable STIs occur annually, making curable STIs an important global cause of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. While these infections are curable, factors such as increasing antimicrobial resistance of chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis caused by sub-optimal diagnosis (especially in women), and antibiotic misuse and overuse, are making gonorrhoea more difficult to treat as well as complicating treatment options for chlamydia and syphilis.

About the course

The aim of this course is to help improve diagnostic and therapeutic decision-making by clinical practitioners for a defined set of curable STIs (syphilis, gonorrhoea and chlamydia) in pregnant women who seek antenatal care (ANC) in low- and mid-income countries.

This course seeks to strengthen antenatal STI management through short video presentations, case studies and knowledge check questions. It targets personnel who deliver antenatal care in ANC settings (nurses, midwives and doctors), as well as facility managers and public health officials, to emphasize the importance of antenatal STI treatment to prevent negative perinatal and maternal outcomes.

• Module 1 provides a general introduction to STIs and RTIs, their effects in pregnancy, and what can be done about them.
• Module 2 (for planners) introduces standards of care (SOC) and several options for STI screening, diagnosis and treatment.
• Module 3 provides clinicians with practical advice on STI screening, diagnosis and treatment during pregnancy based on WHO guidelines.
• Module 4 covers follow-up visits, partner treatment, and methods for monitoring STI services, trends and antimicrobial resistance.

This course will be updated should any WHO STI treatment guidelines be updated or amended. It will also be updated based, in part, on feedback from end users in the course evaluation survey.

Learning objectives

By the end of this course, participants should be able to:

• Explain why STIs are among the most important causes of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality;
• Describe the role and importance of clinical services in reducing the burden of STIs;
• Recognize the standard of care (SOC) defining good clinical practice for STI management, including in situations where there are limitations to health system capacity and/or available resources;
• Describe the role played by antenatal awareness raising, prevention and screening in reducing the overall community burden of STIs;
• Explain key elements of antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) and Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) relevant to antenatal STI management;
• Outline the importance of monitoring, partner screening and routine follow-up for reducing the overall community burden of STIs.

Course duration

Approximately 2 hours.

Certificates

A Record of Achievement will be available to participants who score at least 80% of the total points available in the course assessment.

Course version

This is “Version 1.0” of this online course. At the end of the course, you will have the opportunity to share your feedback in the course evaluation survey. Please take the time to share your experience and opinions. Your feedback will be used to refine and update the course to produce a “Version 2.0”.