Chlamydia control activities in Europe: cross-sectional survey

Low, Nicola; Cassell, Jackie A; Spencer, Brenda; Bender, Nicole; Hilber, Adriane Martin; van Bergen, Jan; Andersen, Berit; Herrmann, Björn; Dubois-Arber, Françoise; Hamers, Françoise F; van de Laar, Marita; Stephenson, Judith M (2012). Chlamydia control activities in Europe: cross-sectional survey. European journal of public health, 22(4), pp. 556-561. Oxford: Oxford University Press 10.1093/eurpub/ckr046

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Background: Chlamydia is the most commonly reported bacterial sexually transmitted infection in Europe. The objective of the Screening for Chlamydia in Europe (SCREen) project was to describe current and planned chlamydia control activities in Europe. Methods: The authors sent a questionnaire asking about different aspects of chlamydia epidemiology and control to public health and clinical experts in each country in 2007. The principles of sexually transmitted infection control were used to develop a typology comprising five categories of chlamydia control activities. Each country was assigned to a category, based on responses to the questionnaire. Results: Experts in 29 of 33 (88%) invited countries responded. Thirteen of 29 countries (45%) had no current chlamydia control activities. Six countries in this group stated that there were plans to introduce chlamydia screening programmes. There were five countries (17%) with case management guidelines only. Three countries (10%) also recommended case finding amongst partners of diagnosed chlamydia cases or people with another sexually transmitted infection. Six countries (21%) further specified groups of asymptomatic people eligible for opportunistic chlamydia testing. Two countries (7%) reported a chlamydia screening programme. There was no consistent association between the per capita gross domestic product of a country and the intensity of chlamydia control activities (P = 0.816). Conclusion: A newly developed classification system allowed the breadth of ongoing national chlamydia control activities to be described and categorized. Chlamydia control strategies should ensure that clinical guidelines to optimize chlamydia diagnosis and case management have been implemented before considering the appropriateness of screening programmes.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Pre-clinic Human Medicine > Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM)

UniBE Contributor:

Low, Nicola, Bender, Nicole

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

1101-1262

Publisher:

Oxford University Press

Language:

English

Submitter:

Factscience Import

Date Deposited:

04 Oct 2013 14:35

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:11

Publisher DOI:

10.1093/eurpub/ckr046

PubMed ID:

21531771

Web of Science ID:

000306928700025

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.13937

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/13937 (FactScience: 220655)

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