Offering e-STI kits in parallel with existing sexual health services could improve testing rates, suggests new research
Visiting a GUM clinic can range from an inconvenience to an ordeal, depending on your tolerance for stripping off in front of strangers, stirrups and swabs.
It is perhaps not surprising, then, that research has found twice as many young people will take an ‘e-STI test’ ordered from the internet to test for gonorrhoea, HIV, syphilis or chlamydia in the comfort of their own home, compared to visiting a real-life clinic.
STIs remain a major problem in England, where 420,000 new cases were diagnosed in 2016, though this was a 4 per cent decline compared to 2015. They are particularly prevalent among 15 to 24-year-olds, nearly half of whom say they do not always use a condom with a new partner.
