The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7236 p219
15 February 2003

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Pharmacists to test men for chlamydia infection

Community pharmacists are to be involved in a project to encourage men to be tested for chlamydia and, if necessary, to seek treatment.

This will be the second stage of a two part project being run by the Men's Health Forum and funded by the National Pharmaceutical Association and the Department of Health. The first stage of the project is a qualitative research programme to find out about young men's knowledge of sexual health in general and chlamydia infection in particular. The results will provide the foundation for the second phase.

Working with a primary care trust, community pharmacies will be one of the places men can go for testing. Consideration is also being given to the possibility of treatment — a single dose of an antibiotic — being available from the pharmacy under a patient group direction.

Traditionally, the greatest users of community pharmacies are older women and women with children. Colette McCreedy, director of pharmacy practice at the NPA said: "We really need to find out about the attitude of men and pharmacists to working in this area." The NPA and the Men's Health Forum are currently looking for a PCT that is both willing and suitable to take on the project. It would need to include a workplace with a large number of men, such as a factory, to provide an identifiable group of clients.

Mrs McCreedy hopes that pharmacists will be able to send off urine samples for laboratory testing and then offer treatment immediately to men who return to find that their test result is positive. But she admits that there are some hurdles to overcome.

"Antibiotic treatment is a thorny area because of the issue of resistance. But chlamydia treatment is an ideal target because it's a single dose. If treatment can be offered under a PGD at the same time as a positive test result, that is very convenient."

The Men's Health Forum is a voluntary group working to improve men's health.