Home testing kits for a 'ticking timebomb' disease triggering infertility in young women are to be handed out in high street chemists in a bid to halt its spread.
Cases of chlamydia, a sexually transmitted infection that is often symptomless, more than doubled between 1996 and 2002 - and tripled in girls aged 16 to 19.
If left untreated, it can not only cause pelvic scarring, which damages a woman's chances of having children, but it appears it can also affect men's fertility by lowering their sperm count. Those infected are often unaware of it until too late.
The trial, due to start in the Wirral area of Merseyside next year, will involve handing out free pregnancy test-style kits through branches of Boots the chemist, and could be extended across the country if it proves successful.
Men and women will use them to provide a urine specimen which is sent off for testing: if it proves positive, they will be able to get antibiotics - normally only prescribed by doctors - direct from specially trained pharmacists to treat the infection.
The project, which will start in the New Year, is part of a growing role for pharmacists, including making the morning-after pill available over the counter - a move that prompted furious complaints from family groups which believed it would only encourage young people to have sex.
Dr Jennifer Hopwood, Wirral NHS chlamydia co-ordinator, said the chlamydia project could trigger similar criticism but the aim was to encourage more people to get tested, by reducing the stigma associated with sexually transmitted infection.
'The big thing about a pharmacy is they are open so often, they are so flexible, and there is the potential for treating as well as finding out whether you have the infection,' she said.
Men as well as women would be encouraged to pick up a test, she said: 'It has in the past been seen very much as a woman's problem. We have used the phrase "sexually shared infection" rather than sexually transmitted infection - we are trying to say there are two of you here, and you need to address both partners.'
Chlamydia tests are available from genito-urinary medicine (Gum) clinics, but many possible sufferers are either put off by long waiting lists or too embarrassed to go. Many private clinics offer the test but charge up to £50 for it.
A report by the Commons Health Select Committee last year warned of a 'public health crisis' emerging over sexually transmitted diseases, with huge delays in accessing diagnosis and treatment from overworked NHS hospital Gum clinics.
The MPs, 'appalled' by the state of services, called for chlamydia screening to be extended nationally and offered in settings outside GPs' surgeries - such as nightclubs and sports clubs - to persuade men to get tested.
A spokeswoman for Boots said the Wirral experiment would be extended to other areas if it worked: 'People in the major at-risk categories are often put off from going to be tested because they don't like the sound of Gum clinics or they have long waiting lists, or they are not often accessible.'
The Department of Health began a pilot project last August offering chlamydia screening through GPs, but only in 10 sites. It will launch the next wave of the programme in January, with more than 50 primary care trusts taking part.
Early results found one in 10 women under 25 carrying the bug, which is now the most common sexually transmitted infection in the UK.
