Blog: BASHH Scholars prepare for the IUSTI World Congress Prague 2026

31 July 2026 (Last updated: 31 Jul 2026 10:37)

The IUSTI World Congress 2026 is being hosted in Prague, 14th-17th October 2026. BASHH has an established relationship with IUSTI, and we are delighted to be hosting 4 scholars for this year’s Congress.

We want to work with scholars to ensure that critical insights, innovations and ideas are brought back to maximise the individual and professional development opportunities.

The scholarship winners for this year’s Conference are Clare Lewandowski-Fowler-Porter (CLFP), Chamani Sonnadara (CS), Kiersten Simmons, and Emily Wang (EW). Emily was also selected to receive the Dr Rajul Patel Scholarship, which is awarded annually to an exceptional BASHH member who has had an abstract accepted to an IUSTI Conference.

We asked a few of the scholarship winners about what they were most looking forward to at the Conference this year, and how their work could uniquely contribute.

Which sessions on the IUSTI programme are you looking forward to?

EW: I am most looking forward to 'Decolonising global health', 'Impact of war and climate crises on HIV/STI outcomes' and 'Therapeutic challenges: mycoplasma genitalium' as I've audited resistance previously.

CS: It is difficult to choose just a few sessions because I am genuinely interested in most of the programme on days two and four. The topics I am particularly looking forward to include Doxy-PEP, the future of syphilis care, M. genitalium therapeutic challenges, genital vulval dermatology, new diagnostic approaches, vaccination, bacterial vaginosis, and next-generation STI care. These sessions focus on some of the most exciting and rapidly developing areas in sexual health.

CLFP: 'STI testing scale up/down'- I’m really looking forward to this session. It tackles an emerging and potentially game-changing debate about whether asymptomatic STI screening still has its place, and as a sexual health nurse, I’m keen to see how rethinking our current testing approaches might reshape day-to-day practice, how we use our resources, and the future direction of services. I expect it to challenge a few established assumptions and prompt some useful reflection on how we balance STI testing and detection, antimicrobial stewardship, and patient benefit. 

Which sessions on the IUSTI programme have strong relevance for your current or future practice?

EW: 'Syphilis diagnosis: a new update' and 'DoxyPEP basic science' will be strongly relevant to my ongoing research in syphilis currently. Modelling impact of STI screening in South Africa and combatting transmission of hepatitis B in South Africa will be interesting for my work with the IFSHHE committee.  

CS: Among the programme sessions, I am particularly interested in those focusing on genital dermatology, syphilis, bacterial vaginosis, and new developments in STI diagnosis and management. These topics are highly relevant to my day-to-day clinical practice, as I regularly manage complex cases within nurse-led clinics and provide senior clinical support to colleagues. Attending these sessions will help me strengthen my knowledge, keep up to date with emerging evidence, and deliver more robust, evidence-based management plans for patients with complex sexual health needs.

I am also keen to attend sessions relating to young people’s sexual health, as I am the Young Persons Lead within our service. These sessions will be particularly valuable in helping me further develop and enhance the care we provide to young people, ensuring that our services remain responsive to their evolving needs and aligned with current best practice.

CLFP: 'DoxyPEP basic science': DoxyPEP is something I’m genuinely passionate about, particularly its potential future use for individuals assigned female at birth (AFAB), where the evidence base is still limited. I care a great deal about equitable access, and I’m keen to get to grips with the underlying pharmacology and mechanism of action, which will be key to safe, evidence-based, and inclusive prescribing as this intervention develops, as well as emerging data on DoxyPEP’s use. 

'Community Engagement as a Driver of Policy Change and Quality Clinical Care': This is really relevant to my own research, which increasingly draws on patient and public involvement to shape priorities and improve services. As my work develops, I want to understand how genuine community engagement can drive policy change and improve the quality and acceptability of care, keeping services responsive to the people who use them.

'Innovations in Clinical Care and Service Delivery: Expanding Equitable Access to STI Prevention and Treatment for key Populations': This fits closely with my focus on equity in sexual health. I’m particularly interested in new models of service delivery that widen access to STI prevention and treatment for underserved and key populations, and in how those approaches can be made sustainable and scalable so they actually reduce the inequalities we still see in care.

Summarise the work you have submitted for IUSTI and tell us how you think it may benefit other attendees to learn about.

EW: Retrospective study describing factors affecting rapid plasma regain (RPR) at diagnosis in early syphilis cases from London and Surrey in England. Results found higher mean RPR for first syphilis infection versus reinfections, and there was no difference in median RPR with or without treponemicidal antibiotic exposure in the previous year. Understanding factors influencing RPR is topically important given new DoxyPEP implementation changing the current syphilis treatment landscape. We will be planning a future study on how DoxyPEP will impact RPR at diagnosis for syphilis infections. 

CS: My poster presentation examines the relationship between 2024 syphilis infection rates in England and the 2025 Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) through a cross-sectional analysis. The aim was to explore whether syphilis rates follow the expected pattern of higher prevalence in more deprived communities.

Interestingly, the findings revealed a reverse trend to what might be anticipated, with some of the least deprived areas showing higher syphilis rates than the most deprived areas. This observation suggests that the epidemiology of syphilis in England may be evolving and that traditional assumptions about deprivation and infection risk may not fully explain current patterns of transmission.

I believe this work will be valuable to conference attendees because it highlights the importance of continually reassessing risk profiles and public health strategies in response to changing epidemiological trends. The findings support the need for wider and more targeted syphilis testing across all populations and geographical areas, rather than focusing predominantly on areas of higher deprivation. This has important implications for service planning, testing strategies, prevention initiatives, and resource allocation.

CLFP: I’ve submitted a manuscript evaluating international guidelines for post–sexual assault care using the AGREE II toolkit and a survivor co-designed framework, with a particular focus on recommendations for prophylactic antibiotics. It’s the first systematic review of its kind, and it found wide variation in how prophylaxis is recommended and limited recommendations for antimicrobial stewardship.

In presenting it, I hope to raise awareness of the work and champion better, more consistent standards of care for survivors. I’d like to highlight how the lack of reliable data on STI acquisition after assault is a real gap that needs investigating, make the case for genuinely trauma-informed care, and open up an honest discussion about the benefits and limitations of prophylactic antibiotic use in this setting.

Dr Kiersten Simmons is a Specialist Registrar working in Brighton, and her area of research is Women’s Health and Wellbeing Services for Women aged 40-65 years.

Wishing all four scholars a fantastic Conference!