A systematic review was undertaken to estimate the prevalence of chlamydia infection among those screened in community pharmacies, and the characteristics of service users. The meta-analysis showed a pooled proportion for chlamydia positivity of 8.1% (95% confidence interval: 7.3%–8.9%). Pharmacy-based chlamydia screening tended to be targeted at those seeking emergency contraception in pharmacies. The pharmacists were reluctant to offer chlamydia screening to potential clients. The uptake of the service was much lower, and tended not to include men and ethnic minorities.

Anal cytology has been proposed as a screening method for identifying high-grade anal intraepithelial neoplasia (HGAIN) histological abnormalities in at risk individuals. Of 291 men who have sex with men attending a HIV clinic for anal cytological screening, 262 (90.0%) yielded technically satisfactory cytological results. Of the 101 men who subsequently underwent high resolution anoscopy, 55 (54.5%) were diagnosed with HGAIN, the majority (52.7%) of whom did not have high grade cytological changes.

This study investigated if clustering of high grade vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia and vulvar cancer in remote communities in Australia can be attributed to infection with human papillomavirus, particularly HPV 16. The results suggest there is no evidence of a more virulence strain of HPV 16 nor an increase in oncogenic HPV prevalence within this cluster.

This study examined the characteristics of those reporting having had their sexual desires fulfilled as a result of their online sexual activities (OSA) and those OSA associated with fulfillment of sexual desires. A majority had had their sexual desires fulfilled as a result of their OSA. Those reporting fulfillment of sexual desires to a great extent was predicted by their engagement in interactive OSA..

Chlamydia trachomatis (chlamydia) is the most commonly notified sexually transmissible bacterial infection in Australia, where distance to health services can be a barrier. This study investigated the acceptability of a self-collection kit for chlamydia testing (sent by mail) and assessed the risk profiles of participants with respect to locality.

Women involved in a chlamydia incidence study were questioned about their experience of having a chlamydia test. Women who tested positive were asked about testing positive and women who tested negative were asked how they anticipated they might feel about testing positive. Generally, having a chlamydia test caused anxiety, however women who tested positive were less concerned than the negative women anticipated they would be if they tested positive.

The aim of this study was to quantify current HIV clinical service capacity in Australia. A retrospective analysis was conducted of annual surveys conducted by general practitioners between 2007 and 2009. Over this period, the proportion of antiretroviral-prescribing general practitioners increased and the number of services with antiretroviral-prescribers decreased despite increasing numbers of people living with HIV. There are increasing deficits in Australia’s HIV clinical capacity.

Key informant perceptions of Australian youth-focussed sexual health promotion programs were explored. Thirty-three semi-structured interviews were undertaken with sexual health professionals involved in funding or delivering sexual health promotion programs or working clinically with individuals diagnosed with sexually transmissible infections. Sexual health promotion programs were perceived to suffer from a number of barriers likely to impede program effectiveness. Strategies were suggested in order to address these barriers.

A retrospective household survey of parents with girls eligible for HPV vaccine in demonstration projects conducted in Uganda and Vietnam found about 25% of parents reported their child had experienced a non-serious adverse event post-vaccination. For these events, most parents (80%) took no action or cared for their child at home, suggesting that most adverse events following immunisation were not perceived as serious enough to contact the health system.

Prisoners have complex health needs, not the least of which is their sexual health. This research presents the main findings from the Sexual Health and Attitudes of Australian Prisoners’ (SHAAP) survey. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first epidemiological study of prisoners to utilize a telephone survey approach. The SHAAP survey includes information on prisoners’ sexual identity, sexual attraction, sexual experiences, age of first sex, number of sexual partners, condom use, paid sex, and reproductive outcomes. Understanding this population group’s sexual health and sexual health behaviours is important to ensure appropriate services and policies exist for this group.

Family planning clinics (FPCs) see large numbers of sexually active young people, particularly females – a priority population for chlamydia control. Using routine clinic data, we assessed chlamydia testing and positivity rates in 2008-2009 among 16- to 29- year olds attending five Australian FPCs. Approximately 40% of young people attending FPCs were tested for chlamydia but a smaller proportion were tested annually or were retested following chlamydia infection.

We examined condom use and discussing sexually transmissible infections (STIs)/HIV with parents among unmarried US women aged 15-24 years. After adjusting for covariates, the predicted probability of condom use among women using other contraceptive methods was 47% among women who discussed STIs/HIV with their parents, compared to 31% of those not discussing STIs/HIV with their parents. Among women not using other contraceptive methods, the predicted probability of condom use remained 64% regardless of whether they discussed STIs/HIV with their parents.

Sydney Sexual Health Centre client preferences for receiving both negative and positive STI and HIV results via various methods, including SMS, phone call, in person and email, were analysed to determine differences in age, gender and sexuality.

Chlamydia home self-tests tests have become increasingly available to the general public in the Netherlands. In the true self-test situation at home, a person is responsible for all aspects of the test: execution, interpretation of the test result and follow-up behaviour. This study investigates the association between psychosocial variables and the intention to use a chlamydia home self-test, to enable information to be tailored to the target population.

Existing surveillance measures in Australia do not assess the proportion of genital warts that are caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) types other than 6 and 11, against which HPV vaccination has no demonstrated effectiveness. Using computer simulation we established that genotyping at least 60 warts could accurately test whether this proportion has increased since vaccination began. In conjunction with incidence and prevalence data, this could indicate whether type replacement is occurring.