Men who have sex with men already feel more empowered with the existence of PrEP (taking anti-HIV drugs to avoid infection and hence not infect others…) and its effectiveness in reducing new cases of HIV is amazing. But little by little, we see many of these men taking antibiotics too, such as prophylactics against syphilis, chlamydia etc. It is usually doxycycline because it has activity against these two infections that I mentioned, but it has no activity against gonorrhea, and the misuse of antibiotics is just what has created major resistance problems. In this study they see that around 10% of those who take PrEP also take prophylactic antibiotics, especially those men who have very active sex lives.
O’Halloran C et al. Factors associated with reporting antibiotic use as STI prophylaxis among HIV PrEP users: findings from a cross-sectional online community survey, May-July 2019, UK. Sex Transm Infect. 2020 Oct 20: sextrans-2020-054592. doi: 10.1136 / sextrans-2020-054592. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33082235.