STD HOME TEST KIT
A new STD home test kit attempts to make it easier for women to guard their privacy, but at the same time allow efficient testing to check the spread of STDs like gonorrhea and Chlamydia.
“I think STDs are somewhat hush-hush because people don’t want to know,” says Angela, a college senior.
“Most people refuse to believe it could happen to them,” says Laura, another college senior.
But, it is happening, and in staggering numbers. According to the centers for disease control, Chlamydia is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted disease. It’s estimated that as many as 1 in 10 adolescent females test positive for Chlamydia—80-90% of them without any symptoms of infection.
“A woman can have as many as 5 infections and not really know that she has them. The more infections they have the more the body reacts. This can lead to scarring of the fallopian tubes and even infertility. They can develop pelvic inflammatory disease and have chronic pelvic pain,” explains Dr. Charlotte Gaydos of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
In an effort to attack the spread of STDs, researchers at Johns Hopkins have launched the first government –sponsored study to measure the effectiveness of a web and community based STD home test kit for common sexually transmitted diseases, such as Chlamydia and gonorrhea.
The study will measure how many women make use of the STD home test kit, determine disease prevalence among respondents, record how effectively test results can be returned to the participants and assess how well respondents who test positive follow through with therapy.
“If a woman is afraid to go to the doctor or does not want to go to the doctor she can take a sample in the privacy of her own home, mail it to us, we will test it for free, she can call in with her password and get the results,” says Dr. Gaydos.
The goal of the researchers is to replicate the widely-used home pregnancy tests and lower the rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among young women, who are most at risk of contracting an STD, and least likely to undergo regular check-ups for disease prevention.
“A large part of the problem is not wanting to go somewhere to get tested, or not knowing where to go,” says Angela, a college senior.
The STD home test kit consists of a packaged, sterile vaginal swab and instructions for using it. Also enclosed are sealed containers for the self-collected swabs and return envelopes with postage paid for mailing the samples back to a lab at Hopkins where they’re tested. Results are available within 2 weeks.
“If she is infected, we will ask where she lives in the state of Maryland and offer her a free clinic to go to and get free treatment,” says Dr. Gaydos.
Students at Johns Hopkins are giving the home test kit their seal of approval.
“I think an at-home method would be a really good idea,” says a college senior.
The pilot study for the STD home test kit was launched in Baltimore, Maryland, in part, because of the city’s high prevalence for STDs. In 2002, the last year for which statistics are available, Baltimore had the third highest incidence of new cases per year for Chlamydia, at 6,267 cases, behind Detroit, Michigan and Richmond, Virginia.
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