Opportunistic testing for chlamydial infection in people attending a sexual medicine clinic for HIV tests

Abstract

Patients presenting for an HIV test alone represent an opportunity for screening for Chlamydia trachomatis. This audit was designed to assess the uptake of chlamydial screening by urinary ligase chain reaction (LCR) in adults attending a genitourinary clinic. All patients requesting an HIV test were offered full genital screening in the first audit period, if they declined they were offered chlamydial LCR. During the second period patients who refused full screening were asked to provide a urine sample for LCR testing unless they declined. Nine hundred and forty-two patients presented for HIV tests alone during the first audit period. Two hundred (22%) agreed to provide a urine sample for LCR testing, 7 (3.5%) were positive for chlamydia. During the second audit period 794 patients presented for HIV tests alone, 426 (55.1%) provided urine for LCR testing, 15 (3.4%) were positive. The uptake of urinary LCR, a non-invasive test for a potentially serious infection remained disappointingly low despite changes to the audit protocol. Reasons for this are discussed.