Screening tests for gonorrhoea should first do no harm

In our editorial we cited a paper as evidence of clinicians misinterpreting guidelines that asymptomatic women should not have gonorrhoea testing.1 The authors of that paper have brought to our attention that their report used an older guideline published in 2008 by the Sexual Health Society of Victoria which does, in fact, recommend both chlamydia and gonorrhoea testing of young asymptomatic women.2 The guidelines referred to in our editorial and the linked article were published in 2012 by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and recommend that gonorrhoea screening be limited only to those at highest risk for gonorrhoea.3 We apologise for implying that Hoad et al misinterpreted guidelines when their paper was in fact in accordance with the older guidelines. The fact that those guidelines appear to have not been updated and are likely to be still in widespread use today may itself be a reason for why low-risk young Australian women continue to be screened for gonorrhoea.

This letter was first published on the MJA website as an Online response