A HEALTH boss has called on secondary schools to encourage their pupils to take a test for a sexually-transmitted infection.

Director of Public Health at NHS Lincolnshire Dr Tony Hill said the trust is behind in its mission to screen as many 15 to 24-year-olds as possible for chlamydia.

And this is despite huge efforts made by the trust to encourage Lincoln-based students and young people visiting bars and nightclubs to take a test for the STI.

Chlamydia is the most common sexually-transmitted infection in the under-25s and can cause serious complications, including infertility, if it is not treated with a course of antibiotics.

The test involves males urinating into a pot and girls taking a self- swab.

And new data released by NHS Lincolnshire reveals young people in Lincolnshire are more likely to test positive for chlamydia than anywhere else in the East Midlands with 6.5 per cent of those screened testing positive.

However, Dr Hill said some schools are more reluctant than others in encouraging screening.

He said: "There's a huge amount of work going on and we are getting contacts into schools.

"We are trying to look at schools where lots of people get chlamydia testing and see what it is about those schools that we can use to encourage others.

"We are encouraging sixth- formers in particular to take the test, but some schools find it a bit unpalatable. Sex is still a taboo and sometimes schools would rather not talk about these things."

Joy Wood, clinical team leader for Lincolnshire Community Health Services, said chlamydia screening is available in some secondary schools as part of the Clinic In A Box service, which offers young people confidential advice as well as access to free condoms.

The service was offered to all 63 of Lincolnshire's secondary schools last September, but since then just 43 have taken up the offer.

Mrs Wood said: "It is not routinely offered to everyone using the service, only when it is appropriate to do so.

"For example, it will be offered when someone comes to the nurse concerned about a split condom or a relationship break-up where the partner has been unfaithful, but not if someone has concerns about bullying."

Allison Lawrence, team manager - of Teenage Services at Lincolnshire County Council said: "The Tackling Teenage Pregnancy Team support improved access to sexual health services in schools to help reduce teenage pregnancy and STI rates.

"This includes access to chlamydia screening, pregnancy testing and to the Lincolnshire C-Card Scheme."

However Helen Nicholls, mum of a teenage pupil at Robert Pattinson School in North Hykeham, said she was concerned that STI screening could be pushed on school children.

She said: "I think you're at school to learn and that you should be leaving other things until they come along later.

"If the pupils are sexually active, it's their responsibility to take the consequences and sort out testing on their own."