DIY sex disease test kit

EVERY 18 to 24-year-old is to be offered an annual check against sex disease chlamydia - with a FREE DIY test kit.

The massive programme is being rolled out across the country after warnings that the disease is becoming an epidemic among teenagers.

Under the scheme more than five million young people are being sent the kits.

All they have to do is provide a urine sample, send it off and wait for the result by text message, email or letter. Previously teenagers were only offered tests when they went to their doctor.

Initiatives such as offering kits to young people at nightclubs failed.

Other schemes offered lottery prizes including iPods, holidays and even cash incentives if they took tests. But too few young people knew about the scheme or took up the offers.

Now they are all receiving a letter and a free testing kit. At the moment, fewer than ten per cent of young people have taken tests for the disease.

Last year only 400,000 were tested out of a potential four million.

And the latest technology means that the samples can be checked in less than 30 minutes.

Chlamydia is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection. At least one in ten sexually active under-25s will have chlamydia and may not know it because most people do not show any symptoms. But it can make women INFERTILE if it is not treated by a course of antibiotics.

Infection rates have grown by 150 per cent in the past year alone.

Major advertising campaigns in cinemas and on television have failed to get youngsters to take precautions or get tested.

Now Ministers hope they will be able to double the number of young people being tested by the end of the year.