Sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections: Guides for health professionals

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) provides public health guidance for the prevention and management of sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBI). PHAC's STBBI guides for healthcare providers and public health professionals outline national recommendations for:

the screening and diagnosis of STBBI
the treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STI) of national public health importance

These guides replace the Canadian Guidelines on Sexually Transmitted Infections. PHAC's STBBI guides do not supersede:

provincial/territorial legislative, regulatory, policy and practice requirements
any professional guidelines that govern the practise of health professionals in their respective jurisdictions, whose recommendations may differ due to local epidemiology or context

Treatment recommendations include indications for the level and quality of evidence.

Sexually transmitted and blood-borne infection guides

Find key information and public health guidance for the screening, diagnosis and treatment (if available) of:

Information on best practices for the prevention and management of STBBI:

Sexually transmitted blood borne infections (STBBI) prevention guide
STI-associated syndromes guide
This guide provides an overview of the management of the following sexually transmitted infection (STI)-associated syndromes: Anogenital ulcers, cervicitis, epididymitis, pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), proctitis, urethritis and vaginitis. Limited information about mpox and extensively drug-resistant Shigella (XDR Shigella) are contained in the Syndromic management tab, the Anogenital ulcers tab and the Proctitis tab.

Updates to the Guide

Guide	Changes/Updates	Date
STI-associated syndromes guide	Update to the Syndromic management tab, Anogenital ulcers tab, and the Proctitis tab to include sexual transmission and clinical considerations for mpox, HPV, Shigella and other sexually transmitted enteric infections.	August 2024
STBBI prevention guide	Update to the Primary and secondary prevention tab to include sexual transmission and clinical considerations for mpox, HPV, Shigella and other sexually transmitted enteric infections.	August 2024
Anogenital warts (caused by human papillomavirus)	Consolidation of previous HPV content in the STBBI guides for health professionals into the anogenital warts guide. Scope of content narrowed to focus on the assessment and management of external anogenital warts caused by human papillomaviruses. Update to the format and layout of the guide to align with the other STBBI guides for health professionals.	February 2024
Syphilis	Update to the syphilis screening recommendations for non-pregnant adults and adolescents to reflect the recently published recommendations.	September 2023
Chlamydia and gonorrhea	Update to the screening recommendation for chlamydia and gonorrhea in pregnancy to reflect the recently published recommendation.	April 2023
Chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis	Update to the epidemiology data contained within the guides to reflect recently published reports.	June 2022
Chlamydia, gonorrhea, genital herpes, mycoplasma genitalium and syphilis	Changes to the language around sex/gender in order to be more inclusive.	June 2022

National Advisory Committee on Sexually Transmitted and Blood-Borne Infections (NAC-STBBI)

PHAC's STBBI guidelines are developed in collaboration with an expert advisory committee with members from across Canada. Visit the NAC-STBBI webpage to learn more about the committee and its workplan.

NAC-STBBI statements

Additional resources

PHAC also produces awareness resources based on the guidelines. These resources for health professionals include factsheets, infographics and Canada Communicable Disease Report (CCDR) articles.