BROMLEY: Youngsters urged to take chlamydia test (From News Shopper)

BROMLEY: Youngsters urged to take chlamydia test

1:47pm Friday 23rd January 2009 in Bromley

NEXT month everybody aged from 16 to 24 living in the borough will receive a letter inviting them to have a chlamydia test.

If chlamydia, a sexually transmitted infection, is left untreated it can cause long term medical problems including infertility in both young men and women.

Free testing kits can be requested online at checkurself.org.uk, at GP practices, pharmacies, schools and colleges.

Bromley Primary Care Trust is offering all returned tests arriving up to the closing date of March 15 to be included in a free prize draw to win a console system or the equivalent in vouchers.

Lead chlamydia screening co-ordinator Stephanie Sawyer said: “Most people with chlamydia do not have any symptoms and therefore don’t realise they are infected but having sex only once, is all it takes.

“In fact a young person finds out they are infected with chlamydia every five minutes.”