Beaufort County Health Department is bringing its STD testing services to the county jail.

With support from the Board of Commissioners and Vidant’s Community Benefits Grant Program, nurses now visit the jail once a week to screen inmates for STDs, and if necessary, get them the medical attention they need.

The program was one of 13 others to receive grant money from Vidant Beaufort Hospital, money that was officially presented to the recipients on Monday.

Carol Rose, public health nursing supervisor, said the health department has introduced urine-based STD testing for gonorrhea and chlamydia at its office in the past two years, but this is the first year it is expanding those services to the jail.

“It’s been working pretty well,” she said. “We treat it as if it would be our patient at the clinic.”

Before the new testing procedure began, chlamydia cases were found mostly in females, with male cases totaling about 6 percent of all positive results. However, with the urine-based tests, more males are getting tested, and that percentage has jumped to about 26 percent, according to Rose.

“That’s a pretty big jump in a pretty short amount of time,” she said. “We’re finding out what’s actually out there.”

According to health department data, 55 percent of males who tested positive for either gonorrhea or chlamydia showed no symptoms, Rose said.

Before urine-based tests, Rose said a male would have to be swabbed to determine if he has an STD, and that was only to determine gonorrhea. The uncomfortable test deterred many patients from getting tested at all.

Females have to undergo vaginal swabbing to determine the presence of gonorrhea and chlamydia.

“Urine is much simpler to collect,” Rose said. “We wouldn’t have been able to expand it to the jail if we didn’t have this option for the urine. … Culturing — it’s just not conducive to doing it off sight.”

The health department is working to incorporate STD education into the testing program, as well.

Rose said jail employees have given positive feedback, and she hopes this will show how they truly want what is best for the inmates in the long run.

“I think it’s been a really good partnership,” she said.