Sexual health services: a third way?

Abstract

Sexual health services: a third way?Sir: In the 6 June issue of the International Journal of STD and AIDS, Hambly and Luzzi 1 reported that it is important to give people a choice of provider of sexual health services, namely either a genitourinary (GU) clinic or a general practitioner (GP). A third alternative might be providing postal specimens. In April 2006, we sent postal swabs to 231 female students taking part in a chlamydia screening trial. 2 They were aged between 16 and 27 years and a third were from ethnic minorities.The response rate was 61% (141/231), of which 20 swabs came back after a reminder phone call or email. Responders and non-responders were similar demographically: 30% of responders (42/141) and 25% of non-responders (35/141) were from ethnic minorities; 11% of responders (16/141) and 14% of non-responders (20/141) were aged 20 years or younger. Six of the 141 samples (4.3%) tested positive for chlamydia. Five were new infections in women who had a negative test 12 months earlier, giving an incidence of new infection of 3.5%.This 61% response rate compares favourably with other studies. Many of the women participating in our study were black teenagers recruited from Further Education colleges in deprived areas of South London -a high-risk group notoriously difficult to reach. However, all the women had agreed to return the postal swabs and all had previous experience of the testing kit when they were recruited to our trial 12 months previously.

IsMycoplasma genitaliumin Women the “New Chlamydia?” A Community‐Based Prospective Cohort Study

“…The roughly 3% prevalence and 1% annual incidence of M. genitalium were approximately one-half the prevalence [20] and incidence [44] of C. trachomatis in our cohort. This may be too low for population screening [39].…”