There is a strong rationale for systematic Chlamydia screening, and it is widely recommended and practised. Yet there are harms associated with the screening process (Low(STIs)), and, of course, serious concerns about its cost-effectiveness (De Wit & Kretzschmar (STIs)). This lends urgency to the question of whether Chlamydia screening works – addressed in a recently […]
Category: Chlamydia Screening
Can a case be made for opportunistic testing for Chlamydia?
Last month saw the publication of a revised Guidance on Chlamydia Control in Europe (2016) by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. This replaces the earlier Guidance on Chlamydia Control in Europe (2009) – though the 2016 document refers the reader to the 2009 one for more detailed descriptions of the epidemiology of […]
Could Chlamydia treatment failure be the result of genital contamination from persistent gut infection
The persistence of Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct) infection in treated patients is generally attributed either to re-infection or poor treatment adherence. To some, however, the evidence has suggested the operation of an additional factor – such as treatment failure (STIs/ Goetz & Bruisten; STIs/ Pitt & Ison; STIs/ Horner). A recent study (Rank & Yeruva (R&Y)) […]
Prospects for a high sensitivity point-of-care test for Chlamydia
A recent paper (Krölov&Langel) describes a technique for the diagnosis of Chlamydia trachomatis which, if developed into a point-of-care test (POCT), could be performed in just twenty minutes and would achieve a considerably greater sensitivity (83%) than any of the POCT alternatives to the current laboratory testing process using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). The technique […]
No rise in UK Chlamydia; but disquieting trends for MSM
The annual report of the UK Health Protection Agency (17th June, 2011) offers a concise and accessible statistical overview of recent trends in STIs (not including HIV/AIDS), as well as details of the UK Chlamydia screening programme and the recent epidemic of lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV). The overall picture suggests a slight decline (1%) in STIs […]
Chlamydia screening at the crossroads
As financial screws tighten, and a general election approaches, British clinical readers are expecting lean times ahead. Services for sexually transmitted infections (STI) are unlikely to get major billing in party manifestoes, and political support tends to be driven by committed individuals rather than public demand. These are particularly interesting times for England’s National Chlamydia […]