Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #112109

Greta L. Anschuetz, MPH¹, Mindy J. Perilla, MPH², C. Victor Spain, DVM, PhD², and Melinda Salmon². (1) Drexel University School of Public Health, 1505 Race St. MS 660, Philadelphia, PA 19104, 215-694-9332, gla24@drexel.edu, (2) Division of Disease Control, Philadelphia Department of Public Health, 500 S. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19146

In 2003, the Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Control Program of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) implemented a voluntary, urine-based Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (GC) screening program in Philadelphia public high schools (HS). A case-control analysis of results from the first year of testing was conducted to determine if having a previous positive test for CT or GC (reported to PDPH) was an indicator of increased likelihood of having CT or GC infection detected through the HS screening program. Multivariable analyses were performed to control for possible confounding by sex, race, age, school type, and ZIP code of residence. In the first academic year of the program (“Year 1”), >19,000 students provided an adequate specimen for laboratory testing. Initial results indicate 5.4% were positive for CT and/or GC and 4.2% had a history of at least one previously reported infection. Preliminary analyses suggest that a previous infection is an indicator of students at higher risk for testing positive in the HS program. Only a fraction of infected students tested in the HS program, however, had a previously reported positive test. These results suggest that STD history can be a marker of higher risk students, but does not adequately identify the majority of infected students.

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