Chlamydia testing within a Sexual Health Clinic
K. Allison, K. Carrick-Anderson, H. Clery, L. McKay, G. Scott
Healthy Respect GUM, Lauiston Building, Lauriston Place, Edinburgh, EH3
9HA, Scotland
Objective: To determine the most effective way of making testing for
chlamydia available in Caledonia Youth (CY), a sexual health clinic for <25 year olds.
Method: A short pilot study carried out among young women attending CY
in 2001 showed that the prevalence of Chlamydia was 11.4%. We then decided to
compare uptake of testing by 2 systems. The first system used Chlamydia postal
testing kits (PTK) developed by the project, that were offered to clients who
attended the clinic. The second system was ‘in-house testing’, where urine
specimens were sent to the laboratory from clients who were already providing a
specimen within their consultation, e.g. a pregnancy test. A treatment clinic
for positive cases was set up on a drop-in basis at CY every Wednesday afternoon,
and was nurse-led using Patient Group Directions (PGD). The study was commenced
in December 2002 and will run until March 2004.
Results: Up to December 2003, 1602 women had been tested, 95% of whom
were aged 13–25. 2,300 PTKs were distributed during this time, of which 594
(26%) were returned. The Chlamydia prevalence by this system was 10.3%. From the
‘in-house’ testing there were 908 young people tested, with a prevalence of
10.5%.
Discussion: Both of these systems were successful in improving access
to Chlamydia testing for young sexually active women at significant risk of
infection. This study has shown that Chlamydia testing is an important component
of this holistic sexual health service.
