May 2025 TTU: New Chemsex Q&A and Updated Guidelines: Hepatitis B, COVID-19 Vaccine, Expedited Partner Therapy, Sexual Health Care

Topics, Trends & Updates

May 2025

View as web page

New: Chemsex: Questions and Answers

Developed by lead authors Dr. Jeremy D. Kidd, Justin Alves, and Dr. Rohit Mukherjee, with the Substance Use Guidelines Committee, the Chemsex: Questions and Answers discusses commonly asked questions about chemsex for clinicians, including how to support patients who engage in chemsex.

Contents:

Go to the full Q&A

Hot Topics

CEI: NYS Clinicians: Share your insights to shape the future of clinical education by completing the 2025 CEI Annual Survey
NYSDOH: Introducing the STI Dashboard
NYSDOH: Hepatitis Awareness Month & Hepatitis C Cure Day Resources
NYSDOH: NYS Recognizes May as Hepatitis Awareness Month: Testing, Treatment, and a Path Toward Elimination
NYSDOH: Reminder: Register for the May 14, 2025, Annual NYS Hepatitis C Elimination Progress Report Virtual Meeting
HIVinfo: Update to the Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Opportunistic Infections in Adults and Adolescents with HIV

See all Hot Topics

Updated Guideline: Prevention and Management of Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Adults With HIV

Lead author Dr. Alok Gupta, with the Medical Care Criteria Committee (MCCC), has updated the Prevention and Management of Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Adults With HIV guideline. This guideline aims to guide clinicians who provide medical care for adults (≥18 years old) with HIV who are at risk of acquiring hepatitis B virus (HBV) or have HBV coinfection.

Updates to this guideline in the HBV Vaccination > Primary Vaccination Strategies section include:

Note on insufficient data to recommend Heplisav-B during pregnancy removed from Table 3: HBV Vaccine Dosing Schedule
2024 updated CDC guidelines added as a reference in text

Go to the full guideline

Contents:

Updated Guideline: Immunizations for Adults With HIV: COVID-19

Lead authors Drs. Christine Kerr and Mary Dyer, with the MCCC, have updated the COVID-19 section of the Immunizations for Adults With HIV guideline. This guideline is designed for clinicians who provide primary care to adults with HIV to keep their patients up-to-date with all recommended immunizations.

The following recommendation has been added to the COVID-19 section: "Clinicians should vaccinate individuals with HIV and CD4 counts <350 cells/mm³ for COVID-19 according to the CDC schedule for individuals who are moderately or severely compromised. (A2)”

Contents:

Updated Guidance: Questions, Answers, and Best Practices for Expedited Partner Therapy (EPT)

Lead authors Drs. Jason E. Zucker and Marguerite A. Urban, with the MCCC, have updated the Questions, Answers, and Best Practices for Expedited Partner Therapy (EPT) guidance. This guidance is for clinicians who provide sexual health care, including testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), with the goal of informing about existing regulations that allow expedited treatment of sex partners of individuals diagnosed with gonorrhea, chlamydia, or trichomoniasis.

Updates to this guidance include:

Definition, Legality, Eligibility, and Barriers section: Added 2 new questions and answers:
If the index patient’s sex partner is taking doxy-PEP, are they eligible for EPT?
What are the barriers to EPT?
Treatment, Medications, and Follow-Up section:
Updated treatment regimens for gonorrhea and trichomoniasis in Table 1: Preferred and Alternative Regimens for EPT
Added Box 2: Prescribing EPT in New York State

Go to the full guidance

Contents:

Related guidelines:

Updated Guidance: Adopting a Patient-Centered Approach to Sexual Health

Lead author Dr. Shauna H. Gunaratne, with the MCCC, has updated the Adopting a Patient-Centered Approach to Sexual Health guidance. The patient-centered, HIV status–neutral approach to sexual health encouraged in this guidance promotes disease prevention and harm reduction and recognizes that there is much more to sexual health than disease prevention and treatment.

Updates to this guidance include:

Revised Figure 1: Components of a Patient-Centered Approach to Sexual Health Care
Expanded and updated list of resources for care providers

Contents:

Go to the full guidance

Don't Miss

Updated Guidelines: Abacavir Use and Cardiovascular Risk

Recent studies have strengthened the association between abacavir (ABC) use and increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in people with HIV. The MCCC worked with the lead authors to update recommendations, tables, and text on ABC use in 4 guidelines:

Conversations With CEI Podcast

The Invisible Latino HIV Crisis: In May 2024, the CDC released its annual HIV surveillance reports. The new data show a continuation of year-over-year reductions through 2022 in the estimated number of new HIV infections in the United States. But disconcerting trends among Latino people—the country’s second-largest racial or ethnic group after white, non-Latino people—reflect persistent failures in HIV prevention and treatment systems that this overall progress has overshadowed. Listen Now

Upcoming Training, Education, and Events

CEI:

See all

General:

See all

Are You a Subscriber?

If this newsletter was forwarded to you, please subscribe now to make sure you receive the Clinical Guidelines Program Topics, Trends, and Updates newsletter every month and stay current with new and updated guidelines. We send 1 email per month and do not share our mailing list.

Comments? Questions? Suggestions?

Email us: aiguidelines@jhmi.edu.

We'll get back to you as quickly as possible.

Note that we cannot answer questions about the care or treatment of specific patients and cannot provide clinical advice.