Pharmacies to provide chlamydia testing

Young women who ask for the morning-after pill at some pharmacies will also be offered a chlamydia test as part of new research.

Under the University of Manchester study, women who ask for emergency contraception will be given a purple box containing a urine sample bottle, free postage and a confidential questionnaire. They will then be able to send off the sample to be tested and will receive a diagnosis within three working days.

The researchers conducting the study, which has been funded by Bupa, hope the free testing will help diagnose more women with the disease, which has no symptoms and can cause infertility.

The study, which will be launched in January next year, is being carried out by in response to the Department of Health’s (DoH) plan to offer chlamydia screening to under-25s in places other than sexual health clinics.

Lead researcher Dr Loretta Brabin, from the university’s school of medicine, said: “This could identify and thus treat a potentially huge unknown population at risk of untreated chlamydia.

“The study will not add to the workload of pharmacies – indeed pharmacists are supposed to advise women asking for emergency contraception about sexually transmitted infection. Now they can give them a direct offer of help.”

It is estimated 18,000 young women take the morning-after pill every year and the researchers hope the new testing initiative will help widen the ways in which women can be tested.

From January 2006 the researchers hope to screen 2,000 women at pharmacies, another 1,000 at family planning clinics and 400 at the Manchester Brook Advisory Centre.

Recent statistics show there has been a significant increase in chlamydia among young women in the last 20 years.

The highest rates of chlamydia are identified by genito-urinary medicine (GUM) clinics, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Recent figures suggest the disease affects as many as ten per cent of sexually active young men and women.

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