The World Health Organization (WHO) has released its first consolidated operational handbook on sexually transmitted infections (STIs), aimed at helping countries strengthen prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and care across health systems.
The handbook provides programme managers, policy-makers, clinicians, community organizations, and partners with practical guidance to translate WHO recommendations into actionable approaches, supporting integration of high-quality STI services within primary healthcare and universal health coverage frameworks.
STIs continue to pose a major global health challenge, with over 1 million new curable infections acquired daily. Syphilis cases alone reached an estimated 8 million globally in 2022, including around 700,000 cases of congenital syphilis. The handbook addresses this growing burden by consolidating all WHO normative and operational guidance on STI prevention, diagnosis, treatment, surveillance, and service delivery published between 2016 and 2025 into a single reference document.
Key features include a structured STI prevention and care cascade that maps patient engagement from primary prevention to partner management, highlighting common programmatic gaps. It also offers operational guidance for integrating STI services into primary healthcare, community platforms, HIV services, sexual and reproductive health, adolescent health, and maternal and child health programmes.
The handbook emphasizes antimicrobial stewardship in line with WHO’s global plan to control drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae and includes implementation guidance on emerging interventions such as doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis and targeted mpox vaccination. It also situates STI service delivery within sustainable financing frameworks, supporting countries as they transition from external donor funding to domestic resource mobilization.
By providing a single, practical reference, the WHO handbook aims to help countries move from fragmented STI responses to integrated, people-centred services, ensuring equitable access to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment for all populations.
