Chlamydia: STI or flower?

"What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."[Shakespeare ]

One in ten men in UK think Chlamydia is a flower

A new strategy aimed at increasing the number of men in England screened for chlamydia has been launched. The number of people tested for the sexually transmitted infection (STI) has risen since 2003 but the proportion of men having checks remains low.

Part of the problem is that young men rarely visit their GP, where they could be offered the urine test, says the Health Protection Agency (HPA). The HPA hopes that the programme will raise awareness of the importance of screening men, both for their own sexual and reproductive health and to prevent infertility in women.

Although chlamydia remains more serious for women, recent evidence by scientists in Mexico suggests that male fertility can also be impaired as a result of infection. If picked up early in men, it can be treated very easily with antibiotics and potentially eliminated.

The National Chlamydia Screening Programme was launched in England in 2003 and screened around 18,000 people under 25 in its first year. Only 7 per cent of these were men. In 2006/07 about a fifth of the 150,000 people screened were men.


Genevieve Clark of the Terrence Higgins Trust said: "Our research found that one in 10 men think chlamydia is a flower, so it's no surprise that too few of them are going for a test.

Source: BBC News 09/Nov/07

 

- TERUG -