Chlamydia Testing

By Nicola Roots

Kingston University students are part of the demographic most at risk of contracting Chlamydia stated Kingston's primary care trust six weeks ago.

They have been on campus offering hassle free testing to KU students. This is in response to a rise in cases in the 18 – 24 year old age range who are thought most likely to suffer and least likely to get tested. 

Orlan Tait, one of the NHS trained outreach workers handing out testing kits said that "on the whole the scheme has been a great success with a rise in the number of diagnoses and therefore treatment".

The scheme is being run all over London where one in ten people are thought to have the infection, an difference of 400% compared to other areas in the UK which typically suffer from an infection rate of one in fifty.

A lot of students at Kingston chose to take the test including Lorna, 22 who is awaiting her results. She said that she had not been tested previously because she knew little about the infection, that it hadn't occurred to her that it could have no symptoms.

Lorna went on to say that the main appeal of today's screening was that "it didn't seem to be a huge deal" and that it also offered a "discretion I may not have got at the Doctors". A reflection of the scheme's intentions agrees Orlan Tait.

Lorna has chosen to receive her results by text message, a perfect example of the scheme's confidentiality policies meaning that any student participating can choose to have their results sent by text, email or phone; a good way to prevent intriguing letters popping through mum and dad's door!

Orlan said of the screening that "it's not for everyone and some people really don't like being asked, but it is a quick way of finding out if you have the infection, and we're having great success with treatment and diagnosis".

The treatment itself is either one very strong or four weaker tablets and in Kingston will be administered by the Wolverton Centre for sexual health.

When the scheme first ran many Doctors and Nurses raised concerns over its validity but the continued success seems to be winning over the critics.

Although you're free to send samples back in your own time it is preferable to the outreach workers to have the samples back on the same day as it means people's personal results and the effectiveness of the scheme can be seen.