Everyone clap for the nation's new No. 1 STD

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2004012689_std14.html

NEW YORK — More than 1 million cases of chlamydia were reported in the United States last year, the most ever for a sexually transmitted disease, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

Public-health experts partially blamed the increase on faltering public-health campaigns and a general failure among physicians to test patients for chlamydia and other bacterial infections that are transmitted sexually. About 19 million sexually transmitted diseases, commonly called STDs, of all kinds were recorded last year, half occurring among people between 15 and 24.

The spread of chlamydia is of intense concern, health officials said, because it is a silent infection with few obvious symptoms in its initial stages. It can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility. It's easily treated if caught early. Scores of cases, experts said, are likely going undiagnosed.

"We have reason to believe that chlamydia is dramatically underreported," said Dr. John Douglas, director of STD prevention at the CDC.

 

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