What is chlamydia? Chlamydia trachomatis is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted disease (STD) in the United States. Chlamydia affects approximately three million women nationally and 300,000 women in California. California also has the highest number of estimated cases of chlamydia in the nation among women aged 15-34. In addition, teenagers and young adults under 25 years of age have the highest rates of infection and complications attributed to the disease.
Among adolescents aged 15-19, it is estimated that one in ten is infected. It should be noted, however, that chlamydia crosses all ethnicities, economic and social classes, and geographic lines. Early detection and treatment of chlamydia is crucial since up to 70 percent of women and 50 percent of men with chlamydia have no detectable symptoms.
How does someone get chlamydia? Chlamydia is transmitted through sexual contact (primarily vaginal or anal) with an infected person.
What are the risk factors for chlamydia? The primary risk factors for chlamydia include: engaging in sex with more than one partner and being in a sexual relationship with someone who has multiple sex partners.
How can you protect yourself from getting chlamydia? The chance of becoming infected with chlamydia can be reduced by avoiding risky sexual behaviors. You can get and spread chlamydia through unprotected vaginal and anal sex. Preventing chlamydia means approaching sexual relationships responsibly: limit the number of your sex partners, use condoms, and if you think you are infected, avoid any sexual contact and visit a local STD clinic, hospital, or your doctor. Be sure your partner is treated to avoid becoming reinfected.
You can also prevent getting chlamydia by: using latex or polyurethane condoms during sex, and limiting your number of sex partners. If you have recently been treated or are being treated for chlamydia infection, you must make sure your sex partner(s) also receive treatment in order to prevent getting infected again. Sex partners should receive treatment even if they do not have any symptoms.
What are some symptoms of chlamydia? About 75% of women and 50% of men with chlamydia have no symptoms of infection. In women, symptoms of chlamydia may include: an unusual vaginal discharge, bleeding after intercourse, bleeding between menstrual periods, and abdominal or pelvic pain. In men, symptoms of chlamydia may include: discharge from the penis, burning with urination, and swollen and/or painful testicles.
Can infection with chlamydia lead to other health problems? When left untreated, chlamydia can increase the risk of acquiring or transmitting the virus that causes.
In women, untreated chlamydia can spread into the pelvic area and infect the uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries, leading to pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). The symptoms of PID include abdominal pain, lower back pain, pain with intercourse, bleeding between periods, and fever. PID can be a very serious condition and requires immediate medical care. It may cause permanent damage to the woman’s reproductive organs and can lead to infertility, chronic pelvic pain, and an increased risk of ectopic pregnancy. In men, untreated chlamydia can affect the testicles, leading to swelling and pain. Related complications can lead to infertility.
What is the impact of chlamydia on pregnancy? Chlamydia can be passed from mother to baby during birth. Chlamydia infection in newborns can cause neonatal conjunctivitis (an infection of the baby’s eyes) and pneumonia. Without prompt medical treatment, the infant’s eyes can be seriously and permanently damaged.
How is chlamydia diagnosed? There are a variety of laboratory tests that can be used to diagnose chlamydia infection. Tests are done with either a urine sample or a sample obtained from a woman’s cervix or a man’s urethra, using a cotton swab.
Is there a treatment or cure for chlamydia? Chlamydia can be treated with the antibiotics doxycycline or azithromycin. Urine tests for both males and females are available to detect chlamydia. There has been major progress in the treatment of chlamydia with antibiotics over the past few years. A single dose of azithromycin or a week of doxycycline (twice daily) are the most commonly used treatments. (For the U.S. only) Common side effects associated with these treatments include diarrhea (7%), nausea (5%), abdominal pain (5%), and vomiting (2%). Chlamydia can be easily treated and cured with antibiotics. Because men and women infected with chlamydia often also have gonorrhea, treatment for gonorrhea is often provided as well. It is important to make sure your sex partner(s) also receive treatment in order to prevent getting infected again. Avoid having sex while being treated to reduce the chances of getting the infection again or transmitting it to someone else.
Chlamydia trachomatis is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted disease (STD) in the United States. Chlamydia affects approximately three million women nationally and 300,000 women in California. California also has the highest number of estimated cases of chlamydia in the nation among women 15-34 years of age. In addition, teenagers and young adults under 25 years of age have the highest rates of infection and complications attributed to the disease. Among adolescents 15-19 years of age, it is estimated that one in ten is infected. It should be noted, however, that chlamydia crosses all ethnicities, economic and social classes, and geographic lines. Early detection and treatment of chlamydia is crucial since up to 70 percent of women and 50 percent of men with chlamydia have no detectable symptoms.
Effects of Chlamydia: Chlamydia is the leading cause of preventable infertility in women.
Chlamydia causes Pelvic Inflammatory Disease. A significant number of women with PID will eventually develop potentially fatal ectopic pregnancy, chronic pelvic pain, and infertility. Pregnant women may transmit chlamydia to their newborn during delivery. Up to five percent of infants born in the United States are infected with chlamydia.
Complications of untreated infections in newborns include conjunctivitis and pneumonia. Questions for you to ask your healthcare provider about chlamydia:
- What does the treatment involve?
- Can you prescribe a single-dose medication to treat chlamydia?
- How soon will the symptoms subside?
- When is it okay for me to be (safely) sexually active again?
- How can I make sure that my partner gets tested and/or receives treatment?
The Urine Test
The urine test, called LCR for ligase chain reaction, was developed by Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Ill. The test is awaiting approval from the Food and Drug Administration before it will be put on the market. The LCR test, which requires a urine sample, will be relatively easy to administer. “The conventional tests for chlamydia require a pelvic exam and a swab from inside the cervix, much like a Pap smear,” said Ault.
“LCR screening means that testing for chlamydia can become more widely available,” he said. Once on the market, “Every physician’s office can have it. It can be put in places that previously have been hard to screen like high school clinics.”
According to preliminary data published in the Lancet, a British medical journal, the sensitivity of the LCR test is 94 percent. In the field tests, Ault will compare the results of the LCR test against a conventional test. The study is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Office of Population Affairs (OPA). Ault is the medical advisor for Region VII of the Chlamydia Control Project, a collaborative effort of the CDC and OPA. Region VII includes Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska.
About 4 million cases of chlamydia infection occur annually in the United States. The cost of the illness exceeds $5 billion, according to Ault. Chlamydia infection is responsible for 30 percent of cases of infertility worldwide and is a major cause of ectopic or tubal pregnancies. Tubal pregnancy, in which the fertilized egg develops in one of the two fallopian tubes instead of the uterus, is the leading cause of death in pregnancy. Chlamydia rarely has symptoms, so often a patient finds out about an infection after the damage has been done. Infected pregnant women may deliver early or suffer pelvic infections after delivery. Babies born to infected mothers can develop pneumonia or eye inflammation. For men, chlamydia is the leading cause of urethral infections.
A urine test for chlamydia in men is already on the market. Chlamydia is treated with antibiotics. There is no immunity to chlamydia infection. A person can become re-infected when re-exposed to it.
Basic Information:
Chlamydia is a genus of microscopic organisms that cannot be categorized as viruses, bacteria, or fungi, but that behave like bacteria. There are three species of chlamydia: Chlamydia trachomatis, Chlamydia pneumoniae, and Chlamydia psittaci. Perhaps the most common chlamydia illnesses are diseases caused by many strains of the trachomatis species. One strain of Chlamydia trachomatis causes conjunctivitis, an eye infection marked by redness and swelling, sensitivity to light, and pus discharge.
A strain of fly-borne Chlamydia trachomatis causes a severe form of conjunctivitis called trachoma. More common in developing countries, untreated trachoma may result in blindness. Each year in the United States, Chlamydia trachomatis causes 4 million cases of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in both men and women, including nongonococcal urethritis (NGU), an infection of the urinary tract. Lymphogranuloma venereum, a lymphatic tissue disease that is rare in the United States, occurs more commonly in tropical regions. In both men and women, symptoms of sexually transmitted Chlamydia trachomatis may include a watery discharge and pain when urinating; in women, Chlamydia trachomatis also causes inflammation of the vagina, cervix, uterus, Fallopian tubes, and ovaries. Women may also experience vaginal discharge, fever, abdominal pain, and pain in the genital area.
In as many as 50 to 70 percent of Chlamydia trachomatis infections, however, women experience no symptoms. As a result, the infection remains untreated and may develop into more serious conditions, including pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, and infertility. Pregnant women with chlamydia infections can also pass it to their babies during birth. The pneumoniae species of chlamydia commonly causes upper respiratory tract infections, including bronchitis, pneumonitis, and pharyngitis. It is the second leading cause of pneumonia in the United States in individuals from 5 to 35 years old.
Spread by person-to-person contact, symptoms of Chlamydia pneumoniae infection may be mild, often consisting only of a cough, fever, and increased production of sputum, a mixture of saliva and other mucus from the respiratory passages. In rare cases, Chlamydia psittaci causes a flu-like illness known as psittacosis or parrot fever, commonly named because the organism is carried mostly by parrots, parakeets, and lovebirds. It may also be found in other birds, as well as in cats, and occasionally in humans. Pet shop workers, bird owners, poultry processing plant employees, and other individuals who work around birds are most likely to develop psittacosis. All three types of chlamydia infections are diagnosed with tests consisting of cell cultures used to exclude other illnesses with similar symptoms, such as gonorrhea, herpes, trichomoniasis, and candidiasis. More recently, immunoassays are typically used for diagnosis.
These blood tests identify the presence of a specific antibody formed by the body’s immune system to fight off chlamydia infection. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that all sexually active women under the age of 20 and women over 20 years with risk factors that include having multiple sex partners should receive annual screening for chlamydia. Chlamydia infections are easily treated with antibiotics. In infections involving sexually transmitted diseases, all sexual partners of the affected individual must be treated to prevent reinfection; latex condoms should also be used during intercourse to prevent transmitting or receiving chlamydial infection.
