The findings and conclusions in these presentations have not been formally disseminated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and should not be construed to represent any agency determination or policy.

Tuesday, May 9, 2006
98

Reducing Routine Chlamydia Screening in West Virginia Women Age 30 and Over

Vicki A. Hogan, Bureau for Public Health, Division of Surveillance and Disease Control, HIV/AIDS & STD Program, West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, 350 Capitol St. Room 125, Charleston, WV, USA and Stephanie D. Thorn, Bureau for Public Health, Office of Maternal, Child and Family Health, Family Planning Program, West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, 350 Capitol Street, Room 427, Charleston, WV, USA.


Background:
West Virginia's chlamydia cases have steadily increased each year since 2001 (2001 每 2,273 cases; 2004 每 2,744 cases): however low positivity was consistently found in the women age 問30 population. To better utilize limited resources, WV (Sexually Transmitted Disease Program, Family Planning Program [FPP] and Office of Laboratory Services [OLS]) began to enforce the State's Chlamydia Screening Protocols within FPP clinics. In order to focus on more at-risk populations, routine specimens from women age 問30 were rejected.

Objective:
To reduce the number of women age 問30 routinely screened for chlamydia in FPP sites to less than 5% of all tests by November 30, 2004.

Method:
A letter was sent to FPP sites informing them that chlamydia specimens for routine screenings on female clients age 問30 would be rejected if the client exceeded the age criteria. When a specimen was rejected due to non-compliance to the age criteria, the OLS returned the laboratory slip with a letter stating the reason for rejection to providers. Providers with a large number of rejected specimens were contacted by FPP representatives and screening criteria were reviewed.

Result:
From November 1, 2002 每 October 31, 2003, 4,809 tests out of 37,545 were administered to women age 問30 resulting in 0.44% positivity. In looking at the data after one year of project implementation, 1,521 out of 33,398 tests were administered to women age 問30 resulting in 1.12% positivity.

Conclusion:
By enforcing the screening criteria, WV reduced the number of tests performed on women age 問30 by 8.25%, allowing our limited resources to be redirected towards the high risk individuals. Due to this effort, screening in women age 問30 decreased from 12.81% in 2003 to 4.55% in 2004.

Implications:
By analyzing disease data and enforcing existing screening criteria, WV can better target their limited resources to populations most at-risk for chlamydia infection.