A PILOT scheme providing free postal testing kits for chlamydia is to be rolled out across Scotland amid soaring cases of the sexually transmitted infection.

The home test kits were pioneered in the Lothian area under the controversial Executive-funded Healthy Respect project. Now the kits are being made available to other health boards and it is expected that Orkney, Forth Valley, Dumfries and GallowayandTaysidewillhavethe initiative in place by the end of the year.

The move to extend the programme comes amid an alarming increase in the number of cases of chlamydia in Scotland over the past decade. Latest figures show that nearly 4500 women were diagnosed with the infection at clinics last year, compared to just under 1000 in 1996. Diagnoses among men increased five-fold - from 827 to 4389 - in that time.

NHS Lothian introduced the postal test kits in 2003, making them available in family planning clinics, youth drop-in centres and other health services. A trial was also carried out where they could be collected from outlets such as record stores and colleges. Kit users supply a urine sample by post and can receive results by phone, letter or text.

DonaMilne,managerofHealthy Respect, said the initiative had been devised as a new way to make testing more accessible to young people.

"They can be made easily available to young people by putting them in places that sexually active young people visit," she said. "Many people like the fact that they can pick up the kits without having to be seen by a healthcare worker."

A new study of chlamydia testing among 13 to 25-year-olds in Lothian, carried out by researchers at Glasgow University, has also revealed that the postal kits are mainly used by men. Lisa Williamson, a research scientist at the Medical Research Council social and public health sciences health unit, said that 80% of men in the survey had used the kit, compared to 46% of women.

"Young women obviously have a number of opportunities to access chlamydia testing - through family planning clinics for instance," she said. "These opportunities are not always available to young men."

The research, which was published last month in the Journal Of Family Planning And Reproductive Health Care, also found that the prevalence rate of chlamydia was 12.3% among young men and 10.6% among young women.

"That is comparable to findings elsewhere in the UK and confirms that there is a substantial prevalence of chlamydia among young people," Williamson said. "It really highlights that this is an age group we have to target in terms of the testing and treatment of chlamydia."

Tim Street, director of FPA Scotland, thefamilyplanningassociation, welcomed the introduction of postal testing kits to other health board areas, although he cautioned that it was "not the perfect answer".

"The big problem with sexual health work is the issue of access," he said. "The kits are not a replacement for anything, but it is a good way of allowing people who might not use services to take up testing."

The Healthy Respect campaign, which has been running since 2001, incurred the wrath of the Catholic Church and some parents for allowing 13-year-old girls to have the morning-after pill and providing children with condoms. An external evaluation of the scheme in 2005 also found that it failed to reduce the number of under-16s having sex, teenage pregnancies and teenage abortions.

However, the postal testing scheme washailedasdeliveringimproved detection and screening of chlamydia. Last month, a report on sexual health servicesbywatchdogNHSQuality Improvement Scotland also backed the use of the postal kits to target patients who may be deterred by embarrassment or long waiting times at clinics.

Nicola Sturgeon, Cabinet secretary for health and wellbeing, said the aim is to make sexual health services more accessible across the country.