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Coming Together for Sexual Health

CAPTC will be participating in the US Conference on HIV/AIDs from September 5-9. We are exhibiting during the conference as a part of the Western Region CBA Provider Network. Come visit our booth for information and giveaways!

The hybrid Intermountain West Harm Reduction Conference: Empowering Change, Breaking Stigma, is organized by a collaborative of harm reduction organizations from Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, and Colorado. The conference is on September 28 and 29 in Salt Lake City, UT, with the option to attend virtually. CAPTC is participating in planning and evaluation of the conference. Learn more and register here.

• 8/30/23, 12-1:30pm, FPACT Webinar on Integrating Trauma-Informed Practices into Reproductive Health Services. Presenter: Dominika Seidman, MD, MAS. 
• 9/28-29/23, Intermountain West Harm Reduction Conference. Attend online or in Salt Lake City, UT. 
• CAPTC DITC (Disease Intervention Training Center) is offering an STI/HIV Interviewing Series and other Disease Intervention Learning Collaboratives.

DoxyPEP has been in the news recently--and CAPTC has got your back. This 2-page resource covers how and why to prescribe an antibiotic after sex to prevent STIs like syphilis, chlamydia, or gonorrhea.

Earlier this summer, the CAPTC collaborated with the California Department of Public Health, Office of AIDS & STD Control Branch, to coordinate and host the 3-day DIS Summit 2023. The theme of the conference was "DIS the Cornerstone of Public Health: Then, Now, and into the Future."

The CAPTC hosted 488 registrants who explored the foundational role that DIS have played and continue to play in public health. We had nationally recognized speakers on racial equity, antiracism, biomedical approaches, and the future direction for DIS. Please visit our DIS Summit webpage to view the recorded sessions, the speaker list, and agenda. 

Introducing Dr. Wyatt Hanft: STI Fellow

CAPTC's STI fellowship was established in 2000 with the goal of training clinicians as experts in STI clinical care and epidemiology. Fellows are affiliated with UCSF CAPTC and the California Department of Public Health. In addition to providing clinical care at the San Francisco City Clinic, fellows conduct research, deliver reports and presentations, develop and teach curricula on STI management, and conduct policy analyses.



We are proud to introduce CAPTC's new STI Fellow: Wyatt Hanft, MD, MPH. As a first-generation college student, Wyatt went to UC Davis and majored in Genetics and Chicano/a Studies. He completed medical school at UC Davis School of Medicine. He studied reproductive health policy at UC Berkeley School of Public Health. At UCSF, he was a resident in Family and Community Medicine. He is now the CAPTC STI fellow.

In line with CAPTC’s mission to train public health professionals, CAPTC established an internship program that trains the next generation of public health communicators. To date, the internship program has graduated nine college student interns. The focus of CAPTC’s internship program is to provide sexual health, public health, and communications mentorship and professional development. One of the primary strengths of the internship is that it allows students to identify and focus on areas of particular interest to them.

CAPTC clinicians who also work at CDPH were recently involved in the following publication about treatments for pregnant people with syphilis: 

Comparing 7-Day Versus 6-8-Day Penicillin Treatment Intervals Among Pregnant People With Syphilis of Late or Unknown Duration: No Difference Found in Incidence of Congenital Syphilis. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2023 Jun; 10(6):ofad300. Johnson KA, Burghardt NO, Snyder RE, Plotzker RE, Imp BM, Murphy R, Jacobson K, Tang EC. PMID: 37389226; PMCID: PMC10300633.

CBA Looks Ahead to Year Five

The CAPTC’s Capacity-Building Assistance (CBA) program met with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) staff to discuss the impact of the past year’s activities and look ahead to the fifth and final year of our five-year grant. While this program’s technical assistance efforts have made great strides in reducing stigma surrounding HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) amongst California’s healthcare communities, there is ambition to further build on these successes. Read more about CBA's plans for year 5.

Season 4 of CAPTC's podcast Coming Together for Sexual Health is well underway, and is comprised of mini series. Listen on your favorite podcast platform!

Spotify & Apple Podcasts & Amazon Music & iHeart Media

S4 E1 Narcan Queen Kochina Rude on Drag and Harm Reduction

Drag Queen Kochina Rude demonstrates how she uses her drag performances to educate the LGBTQ+ community on safe partying and overdose prevention. 

S4 E2 Harm Reduction by Heart with Braunz Courtney

Braunz Courtney shares how he went from growing up with a mother addicted to substances to dancing shirtless while raising awareness of HIV/AIDS in the Black community to directing a harm reduction service agency.

S4 E3 Harm Reduction Contextualized: National and Global Perspectives 

Tanagra Melgarejo Pulido from the National Harm Reduction Coalition talks about how people who use drugs developed the harm reduction movement and the state of harm reduction services and drug policies in the US and abroad. 

S4 E4 When People Have or Are Denied Abortions: The Turnaway Study with Diana Greene Foster

Diana Greene Foster, PhD, shares that her research found: “When people are making the decision about what to do with an unexpected pregnancy and they decide on abortion, all the reasons they give us are exactly those outcomes that we see for people who are denied an abortion.”

...and two more episodes in this mini-series are dropping soon!