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Ohio House Oks Bill to Expand STD Treatment to Patients’ Partners
By: Associated Press
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – The Ohio House has passed a bill to allow health professionals to treat the partners of patients with chlamydia, trichomoniasis or gonorrhea without first examining them.
Currently, providers must personally examine and diagnose people with a sexually transmitted infection before providing prescription antibiotics.
The bill would institute the so-called practice of expedited partner therapy. It would give doctors the authority to write a prescription for a partner of a patient diagnosed with chlamydia, gonorrhea or trichomoniasis without first seeing the partner.
Two practicing physicians who serve in the Legislature sponsored the bill, which passed 89 to 6. It now goes to the Senate.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ohio is one of four states that prohibit expedited partner therapy. Others are Florida, West Virginia and Kentucky.