Welcome to the Australian Collaboration for Chlamydia Enhanced Sentinel Surveillance (ACCESS) project.

The main aim of ACCESS is to establish a comprehensive surveillance system that will help to evaluate the impact of interventions designed to control genital Chlamydia trachomatis infection in Australia and will underpin Australia's strategic response to Chlamydia. 

The ACCESS project (The Australian Collaboration for Chlamydia Enhanced Sentinel Surveillance) involved the establishment of six separate chlamydia sentinel surveillance networks, each providing unique information on testing uptake and prevalence of chlamydia infection in a range of priority populations; young heterosexuals, men who have sex with men, Indigenous people, pregnant women and sex workers.

Passive surveillance has demonstrated that chlamydia is a substantial problem; however it has not provided a systematic means of measuring any changes in testing levels by specific target groups, or assessing time trends with any confidence. The ACCESS project fills these gaps in information, and together with passive surveillance gives Australia a robust chlamydia surveillance system.

Funders: 2007-2010: Australian Department of Health and Ageing through the National Chlamydia Pilot Testing Program that aimed to test the effectiveness of a number of models for chlamydia testing in Australia. This project will assist in developing possible recommendations for a National Chlamydia Program.

ACCESS Funding Update, November 2010

ACCESS was funded from 2007 to 2010 by the Australian Department of Health and Ageing through the National Chlamydia Pilot Program.

The ACCESS lead partners - the Burnet Institute, the National Centre for HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, National Serolology Reference Laboratory and the National Perinatal Statistics Unit - are committed to the Project and are seeking refunding.

Until refunding of the ACCESS project is confirmed, the ACCESS lead partners will continue working with the ACCESS networks and sites in a low-level maintenance phase to to give the network the best chance of being fully reactivated when further funding becomes available. The costs of this low-level maintenance phase is being borne by the ACCESS collaborating partners.  

For more information, please contact Caroline van Gemert, ACCESS Coordinator, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or on 03 9282 2243.