1 An Assessment of Expedited Partner Therapy for Enhanced Gonorrhea and Chlamydia Control in

of Epidemiology (SOE) to request assistance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help identify methods to control the outbreak. Given the substantial challenges of identifying and treating sex partners, particularly those living in remote areas, SOE and CDC staff examined expedited partner therapy (EPT) as a potential tool to help reduce Alaska’s high sexually transmitted disease rates. EPT is the clinical practice of treating the sex partners of patients diagnosed with chlamydia or gonorrhea without examination of the sex partners by the health care provider. While prior state law did not explicitly prohibit nor condon