Self-sampling for cervical cancer screening – what is it and what does evidence from Europe tell us about whether it provides any benefits compared to traditional ways of screening?
Regular screening is crucial for preventing cervical cancer or identifying cancer at an early stage, when treatment is most likely to be successful. Screening is particularly important for women who did not receive the HPV vaccine; in the UK, that means most women over the age of 30. Many European countries, including the UK, have Read More >
Further evidence that point of care (POC) testing for STIs means better clinical care for patients
Most people are now familiar with using rapid diagnostic tests with many people regularly using lateral flow tests for COVID-19. Within sexual health clinics, rapid testing for HIV has been widely used for a number of years but using rapid tests for other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as chlamydia and gonorrhoea is not yet Read More >
Research Assistant joins the Aquarius team
We’re pleased to welcome a new member of the Aquarius team. Beth Shead joined the team in October as our new Research Assistant. She will primarily support our work on patient pathways and micro-costing in sexual health clinics as part of a larger Innovate UK funded project with Atlas Genetics and St. George’s University of Read More >
Evaluating the use AMR POCT in treatment of gonorrhoea
Aquarius Population Health recently worked with the Applied Diagnostic Research & Evaluation Unit (ADREU) at St. Georges, University of London, to assess the cost-effectiveness of six hypothetical strategies for using antimicrobial resistance point-of-care testing to guide the treatment of gonorrhoea. Our findings were presented at the STI & HIV World Congress in Rio de Janeiro, Read More >
Evaluating multi-bug point-of-care tests for sexually transmitted infections
We were a collaborator on a recent Innovate UK-funded SBRI project with Binx and the Applied Diagnostic Research and Evaluation Unit at St George’s University of London. In this project, our team compared the overall costs, patient benefits and cost-effectiveness of three different multi-pathogen point-of-care testing strategies with the current strategy of microscopy and lab-based Read More >
Antimicrobial resistance: Why it matters
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been described as one of the world’s greatest threats to human and animal health. Some reports suggest that by 2050, AMR could kill around 10 million people each year worldwide. Public health leaders warn we could enter a ‘post-antibiotic’ era where easily treatable common infections become untreatable. Read More >
Antimicrobial resistance: How to combat AMR
Part 2: What, if anything, can we do as individuals to help combat AMR? In the second part of this article, we explore what we can do to combat AMR. Don’t get ill. That might sound ridiculous, since no one wants to get ill. However as individuals, we can reduce our risk of picking up Read More >