Missing chlamydia test results are beginning to cause concern to students this term. Vision can reveal that, after YUSU’s “Chlamydia Challenge” event in the autumn, numerous participants have complained of having failed to receive any further information regarding the outcome of their tests.
The free chlamydia testing event was held in November of last year in association with Yorscreen, a free chlamydia screening program open to 16-24 year olds throughout North Yorkshire.
The Yorscreen website guarantees that results, regardless of whether they are positive or negative, will be returned to participants within two weeks of testing.
However, almost three months after the event, many students have still received no indication of the rsults of their test
A previous Chlamydia Challenge last February also left several students uninformed about their sexual health. There are some who even now have heard nothing from Yorscreen regarding the test.
A second year Politics student described how he and his girlfriend had both taken the test and not receieved results. “It’s confusing because of the way the Chlamydia Challenge is run,” he said.”There’s nobody to ask whether or not you should have receieved a reply. You’re really left to draw your own conclusions.
“We’ve since been to a clinic and both been tested.”
Several students were approached by Vision who expressed uncertainty over whether or not they had received results, believing the lack of contact by Yorscreen to mean that they did not have chlamydia.
One girl admitted that she had forgotten about the issue entirely after a while, saying how Yorscreen “never got back to me, so I assumed the test was negative.”
The reaction of a second year German and Linguistics student demonstrated the lack of concern felt by many students who did not receive results.
“To be fair to Yorscreen, they do give out decent pens. In the few months I’ve been waiting for my results mine still hasn’t run out”
The challenges are a popular and effective way of raising widespread awareness for the issue of students’ sexual health. Over 700 took part in last February’s Clamydia Challenge and the number is thought to be higher for November’s.
However, mistakes like this damage the chlamydia testing initiative, as students lose faith in the reliability of the system when they are left to make their own assumptions about their sexual health.
It is as yet unclear exactly how many students did not receive results, although Yorscreen assured Welfare officer Laura Borisovaite that everybody who did test positive was contacted.
A spokesperson for York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust reiterated this, pointing out that every effort is always made to return news of a positive result, but that “we would encourage those students screened in November who have not received their result, or who have any concerns whatsoever about the service, to contact us as soon as possible.” They put any missed responses down to “human error”
Borisovaite was naturally concerned about the problem, pointing out that “the issue is a serious one and any future partnership will depend on improvement in response rates.”
One student expressed their concerns: “if people are walking around with chlamydia and they don’t know it, we should all be concerned!”