GYT and Beyond: A Border University Experience

Background: 

The Student Health Services (SHS)  at the University of Texas Pan American (UTPA)  provides medical services to its 18,000 students in South Texas, along the U.S.-Mexico border.   Nearly 69% are low-income and 85% are uninsured.    SHS is committed to offering low cost health care services, including testing and treatment  for STD’s. The CDC’s GYT program was launched at SHS in April 2010, offering free STD testing to students with the help of community partners: Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS), Valley Aids Council (VAC) and Planned Parenthood (PP)

Objectives:   GYT will provide free STD screening while SHS develops sustainable routine low cost screening with community collaboration.

Methods:   Planning for GYT involved SHS brainstorming, then meetings with community partners for delegation of PR, volunteers and lab.  SHS communicated with partners regularly to continue free HIV screens (VAC) and treatment and tracking (TDSHS).

Results:  175 plus students were screened for Chlamydia at each GYT event, with 57% of students reporting a first ever screen. Many students shared that they could not afford screening before GYT.  SHS’s Chlamydia testing increased and positivity rose from 5.3% to 6.7% from 2009 to 2010.  SHS continued to offer free to low cost testing and treatment following GYT, due to ongoing community partnerships.

Conclusions:   GYT itself increases numbers but it also creates commitment among staff to increase year-round screening, resulting in a rise in yearly screening and positivity rates. GYT springboarded us to push for continued lower cost testing due to the huge response on free GYT days. 

Implications for Programs, Policy, and Research:   We plan to evaluate our data to see if our rising rates are a reflection of national Chlamydia rates due to targeted risk population testing or due to other reasons such as border culture "taboo" feelings about sex issues.  We will benchmark with GYT campuses, track our rates over time and analyze cost as it relates to numbers screened.