2016 European guideline on the management of non-gonococcal urethritis

Patrick J Horner, Karla Blee, Lars Falk, Willem van der Meijden, Harald Moi

We present the updated International Union against Sexually Transmitted Infections guideline for the management of non-gonococcal urethritis in men. This guideline recommends confirmation of urethritis in symptomatic men before starting treatment. It does not recommend testing asymptomatic men for the presence of urethritis. All men with urethritis should be tested for Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae and ideally M. genitalium using a NAAT as this is highly likely to improve clinical outcomes. If a NAAT is positive for gonorrhoea, a culture should be performed before treatment. In view of the increasing evidence that azithromycin 1 g may result in the development of antimicrobial resistance in Mycoplasma genitalium azithromycin 1 g is no longer recommended as first line therapy, which should be doxycycline 100 mg bd for 7 days. If azithromycin is to be prescribed an extended of 500 mg, then 250 mg daily for 4 days is to be preferred over 1 g stat. In men with persistent NGU, M. genitalium NAAT testing is recommended if not previously undertaken, as is Trichomonas vaginalis NAAT testing in populations where T. vaginalis is detectable in >2% of symptomatic women.