Mailing of specimens for processing, return of results is feasible
FRIDAY, Dec. 30, 2016 (HealthDay News) — It is feasible to sell chlamydia test kits through pharmacies and use existing health infrastructure to follow up on results and manage clients, according to a pilot study published online Dec. 23 in the Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research.
Joseph Debattista, Ph.D., from the Metro North Hospital & Health Service in Brisbane, Australia, and colleagues assessed postal specimen kits for chlamydia testing. Kits were sold at a minimal price at 18 community pharmacies. Samples, collected via UriSwab, were mailed to a centralized service for processing, and results were returned directly to clients.
The researchers found that over a nine-month period, 32.7 percent of 333 available test kits were sold. Of the 109 sold tests, 43 specimens were returned for processing. Of the returned samples, seven produced reactive results, 34 produced non-reactive results, and one was invalid.
“Despite a low specimen return rate (12.9 percent of total kits available; 39.4 percent of kits sold), a high reactivity rate (16.3 percent) for chlamydia was identified among those persons purchasing a kit and returning a sample, suggesting that the pharmacy program had been effectively targeted,” the authors write.
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