Further evidence that rapid near-patient testing for chlamydia and gonorrhoea in sexual health clinics benefits patient care

Chlamydia and gonorrhoea are among the most common sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and around 2 million people are tested for chlamydia and gonorrhoea in sexual health services (SHSs) each year in England [1].

The turnaround time for test results can vary from 1-2 days in many urban clinics to more than 8 days in some areas [2-4]. This means that instead of waiting for the result before treating people, many clinics choose to treat patients when they first attend if they have symptoms, or their partner has a confirmed infection. Inevitably, this means that some people without an infection receive antibiotics whilst people with an infection, but no symptoms must return to receive treatment on a subsequent day, risking onward transmission in the meantime.

In an Innovate UK grant-funded project, Aquarius Population Health collaborated with three sexual health clinics in England to develop evidence around the impact of using a new highly accurate 30-minute point-of-care test for chlamydia and gonorrhoea developed by binx Health.

The results of this work indicate that compared to using standard laboratory tests, using a 30-minute point-of-care test reduces waiting times for test results and time to chlamydia treatment. The paper reporting this work is published in Therapeutic Advances in Infectious Disease and the full text can be accessed here.

Huntington S, Weston G, Adams E. Assessing the clinical impact and resource use of a 30-minute chlamydia and gonorrhoea point-of-care test at three sexual health services. Therapeutic Advances in Infectious Disease. January 2021. doi:10.1177/20499361211061645

References

Public Health England. Sexually transmitted infections and screening for chlamydia in England, 2020. Available online.
Public Health England. Audit report on turnaround times National Chlamydia Screening Programme. [Internet]. 2014 Nov. Available online.
Harding-Esch E, Sherrard-Smith E, Fuller SS, et al. P65 Sexual behaviour in the time period between being tested for chlamydia and receiving test result and treatment. Sex Transm Infect [Internet]. 2015 Jun 1 [cited 2019 Feb 27];91(Suppl 1):A37–A37. Available online.
British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH). Standards for the management of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) (Draft for public consultation) [Internet]. 2019 Jan. Available online.