A new rapid test to detect the 'invisible' sexually transmitted disease, chlamydia, which affects millions of men and women, has been created by a team of scientists led by Dr Helen Lee of the Department of Haematology.

The award-winning 'Firstburst'1 dipstick test is cheap and can give a result in minutes - vital factors if it is to be successfully introduced in the developing world where it is the main cause of preventable blindness in new-born babies. The disease can also make women infertile or cause them to suffer ectopic pregnancies and abortions.

Chlamydia is one of the most common STDs, with 92 million new cases being recorded by the World Health Organization in 1999. The UK healthcare costs in relation to the disease run to around £100 million with an estimated 10 per cent of women under 25 attending inner city clinics suffering from chlamydia. Of those who contract it 70 per cent of women and 50 per cent of men show no symptoms.

Earlier this year the Commons cross-party Health Committee reported a crisis in the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. It noted that cases of chlamydia had more than doubled between 1996-2001 to more than 67,000 cases a year.

The £3 million, five-year dipstick project was led by Dr Lee who brought together a 13-strong international team of chemists, biologists, engineers and material scientists from private industry backgrounds and academia who were keen to work on a 'social investment' programme.

The Wellcome Trust gave just over £2 million to the project with the remaining finance coming from the World Health Organisation and the US National Institutes of Health. The Trust has added a further £750,000 from its Technology Transfer Division to help Dr Lee set-up a California-based company, Diagnostics for the Real World which will distribute the dipstick, initially in Africa and Asia.

Dr Lee said:

"It's important to have a quick, simple-to-use test for chlamydia because seven out of ten women who contract the disease have no idea they have been infected. But once it has been diagnosed it is easily treated with a one-off pill.

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