Background Infectious syphilis partner notification (PN) is centrally coordinated at the British Columbia (BC) Centre for Disease Control. Approaches include patient-initiated and provider-initiated PN, and outcomes include the proportion of partners (1) notified of possible exposure to syphilis, (2) tested and/or treated, and (3) diagnosed. Among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM) who have the greatest burden of syphilis, we evaluated PN outcomes between patient-initiated and provider-initiated PN.

Methods All infectious syphilis diagnoses in 2016 in BC were included. Syphilis re-diagnosis was defined as a syphilis diagnosis in 2016 with at least one additional diagnosis in 2006–2016, while first-diagnosis was defined as a syphilis diagnosis in 2016 only. PN outcomes were calculated along a cascade-of-care framework, where the numerator is the denominator of the subsequent indicator. Chi-square tests compared PN outcomes of patient-initiated versus provider-initiated PN, within strata of gbMSM first-diagnosed and re-diagnosed.

Results Of the 759 infectious syphilis cases in BC in 2016, 648 (85%) were among gbMSM, among whom 474 (73%) were first-diagnoses and 174 (27%) were re-diagnoses. A significantly greater proportion of gbMSM first-diagnosed chose patient-initiated PN compared to gbMSM re-diagnosed (62% vs 42%; P<0.01). Among gbMSM first-diagnosed, patient-initiated PN resulted in a greater proportion of partners notified compared to provider-initiated PN (177/199; 89% vs 426/603; 70%; P<0.001). There was no difference in the proportion of partners tested and/or treated, (156/177; 88% vs 380/426; 89%; P≥0.05), and diagnosed (24/156 15% vs 51/380 13%; P≥0.05). A similar trend in PN outcomes was observed among partners of gbMSM re-diagnosed.

Conclusion Patient-initiated and provider-initiated PN had similar outcomes among partners of both gbMSM first-diagnosed and re-diagnosed. However, gbMSM first-diagnosed were more likely to choose to notify their own partners. These findings demonstrate that patient-initiated PN have similar outcomes to provider-initiated PN and can increase the overall capacity for PN.

Disclosure No significant relationships.