If you test positive for a bacterial STI (gonorrhea, chlamydia, or syphilis) in Belgium, the treatment pathway is highly integrated if you use the community hubs.
The Treatment Pathway
- Tested at an HRC or Community Hub (ITM Antwerp / Ex Aequo / CHU Saint-Pierre): If your result comes back positive, these centers handle treatment directly. They will call you to return to the clinic, where you will receive your prescription or injection.
- Tested at a GP: Your GP (huisarts / médecin traitant) will prescribe the required antibiotics, which you then collect from any pharmacy.
- Cost: With your Mutuelle active, consultations and most standard oral antibiotics incur only a small co-pay (ticket modérateur). Injections for syphilis or gonorrhea administered at an HRC are usually covered or heavily subsidized.
Partner Notification
If you test positive, you are strongly encouraged to inform recent sexual partners so they can seek testing and treatment.
If you cannot face telling a recent partner directly due to safety concerns or anxiety, use depistage.be or partneralert.be. Depistage.be allows you to directly send an anonymous SMS notification to recent partners. Partneralert.be requires a specific code provided by a healthcare professional (like at an ARC) when you are diagnosed, which you can use on their site to trigger anonymous SMS or email alerts. Both systems protect your identity.