Press Release - "Who Has Got The Lovebug?"

Press Conference To Launch The Study

Tuesday 13 February 2001 at 11.30 am

Bristol Enterprise Centre, Bristol University, 3rd Floor, Senate House, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol

A major study to tackle the world's commonest bacterial sexually transmitted infection starts on Valentine's Day. Researchers at the University of Bristol are co-ordinating the largest ever Chlamydia Screening Study with the University of Birmingham, the Public Health Laboratory Service and local GPs in the Bristol and West Midlands areas.

The Chlamydia Screening Studies (ClaSS) project has been commissioned by the NHS Health Technology Assessment Programme and will consist of six interlinked studies over the next two years.

18,000 men and women aged between 16-39 will be chosen at random from the NHS lists of 27 selected general practices in the Bristol and West Midlands areas. Participants will be sent a pack by their GP asking them to take part in the screening study. The pack contains information about Chlamydia and the study, a brief questionnaire and containers for providing specimens for testing.

All participants testing positive for Chlamydia will be offered treatment and invited to take part in the subsequent parts of the study.

A small sample of people with negative test results will also be asked to participate further by completing a questionnaire so that people with and without Chlamydial infection can be compared. Other components of the study will investigate the best way to trace and treat sexual contacts of people with Chlamydia, the best laboratory test, the emotional impact of screening on both men and women and the economic impact of screening.

The Department of Health is considering setting up a screening programme for the detection of genital Chlamydial infections. But more research is required to find out how such a screening programme can be most cost-effectively designed, targeted, delivered and evaluated.

Dr Nicola Low, Lecturer in Public Health Medicine at Bristol University, said: 'We hope that people won't feel embarrassed about sending us a urine specimen or a swab. We need the people's help to boost our understanding of how common chlamydia is and how best to manage it.'

Notes To Editors

Chlamydia trachomatis costs the NHS up to £100 million a year in treatment costs associated with lower genital tract infections in men and women and long term complications including ectopic pregnancy, tubal infertility and pelvic inflammatory disease. The human cost of these problems is difficult to quantify and is borne disproportionately by women.

If detected early Chlamydia can be simply and effectively treated with antibiotics. However, most women and many men with Chlamydia have no symptoms. Chlamydial infection therefore continues to be passed on from person to person, unrecognised and untreated.

Until recently most tests for Chlamydia involved an intimate and uncomfortable examination that can only be done at a health facility. New tests for Chlamydia, which use urine samples or simple self-collected swabs can now diagnose the infection quickly and reliably. Reducing the burden of Chlamydia-associated disease through screening and treatment is now possible.

The researchers at Bristol University co-ordinating the study are:

Dr Nicola Low, Lecturer in Public Health Medicine,
Dr Anna Graham, Clinical Research Fellow in the Division of Primary Care, and
Dr Matthias Egger, Clinical Reader in Epidemiology and Public Health (Principal Investigator)

Issued by the Public Relations Office, Communications & Marketing Services, University of Bristol, tel (0117) 928 8896, mobile (07770) 408757. Contact: Joanne Fryer.