Chlamydia tests for men at football matches

LONDON (Reuters) - Young men are to be offered chlamydia test kits at football matches and sports clubs to encourage them to check for the sexually-transmitted infection, the Health Protection Agency said on Friday.

The move is part of a drive to increase male screening for the infection, which can cause long-term health problems and infertility.

"The number of young men being screened for chlamydia has been increasing year on year but there is still work to be done to ensure that this number continues to rise," said Mary Macintosh, director of the National Chlamydia Screening Programme.

Chlamydia infection rates have soared in Britain over the last decade, with one in ten people under 25 who are tested found to be positive.

But the number of young men having their urine tested for the infection remains low compared to women.

"Women tend to be more engaged in services like GP surgeries so you tend to pick up quite a lot of screens through those conventional routes," said an HPA spokeswoman.

"With men it's not as easy. This screening programme is going out to places where it is easier to access men -- places like football matches, youth clubs and sports clubs.

"People can take them away, do the urine test at home, can send them off to a lab and then have the results come back anonymously," she said.

If untreated, chlamydia can cause Reiter's syndrome, a form of arthritis which causes swelling of the joints, and inflammation of the urethra and the eyes.

(Reporting by Tim Castle, editing by Jeremy Lovell)