The impact of discontinuation of male STD screening services at a large urban county jail: Chicago, 2002-2004.
BACKGROUND
Before April 2003, all male detainees were offered chlamydia (CT) and gonorrhea (GC) screening tests, after which services were limited to symptom-based testing. In 2003, male screening was discontinued at a large urban county jail.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the impact of discontinuing universal male sexually transmitted disease screening in a large county jail.


METHODS
We compared the number of male CT/GC cases during the periods of universal screening (April 2002 to March 2003) with symptom-based testing (April 2003 to March 2004).


RESULTS
The number of reported CT/GC cases among male detainees declined by -91.7% (3329-277) and -90.5% (1133-108), respectively after universal screening was discontinued. Citywide, CT/GC cases among males and females declined by -9.3% (24,885-22,563) and -12.9% (13,249-11,541), respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Discontinuation of universal male CT/GC screening services at a large county jail represents a missed opportunity to screen a high-risk population and was associated with substantial declines in reported morbidity.
Broad
Jennifer
J
Chicago Department of Public Health, STD/HIV Prevention and Care Program, Chicago, Illinois, USA. broad_jennifer@cdph.org
Cox
Tamara
T
Rodriguez
Sergio
S
Mansour
Mohamed
M
Mennella
Concetta
C
Murphy-Swallow
Dorothy
D
Raba
John M
JM
Wong
William
W
D000328:Adult; D002641:Chicago / Q000453:epidemiology; D002690:Chlamydia Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control; D005260:Female; D006069:Gonorrhea / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011329:Prisoners; D011330:Prisons / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015231:Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Bacterial / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control; D055815:Young Adult