
Symptoms
Because most reproductive complications of chlamydia occur in females and most infections are asymptomatic, the cornerstone of chlamydia prevention is screening young females for infection. Chlamydia is easily diagnosed and treated.
Causes
The four levels of public health intervention that should be incorporated into chlamydia control programs include: Primary prevention: including health promotion and education, and access to condoms;
Prevention
Even if a patient with a presumptive diagnosis of chlamydial infection will be treated and counseled to refer partners before test results are known, chlamydia tests should be performed: Ensuring appropriate medical care, particularly if symptoms persist,
Complications
Behavioral risk reduction efforts, such as promoting correct and consistent condom use, can have an impact not only on chlamydia, but also on other STDs, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, and on unintended pregnancy ( 10 ).
What is the cornerstone of chlamydia prevention?
What are the four levels of public health intervention for chlamydia?
When should Chlamydia tests be performed in patients with presumptive diagnosis?
Can behavioral interventions reduce the risk of chlamydia?

What is the prevention of chlamydia infection?
The surest way to prevent chlamydia infection is to abstain from sexual activities. Short of that, you can: Use condoms. Use a male latex condom or a female polyurethane condom during each sexual contact. Condoms used properly during every sexual encounter reduce but don't eliminate the risk of infection.
Is STD screening primary or secondary prevention?
The control of all std involves: primary prevention, eg, sexual health education and promotion of risk reduction; secondary prevention, ie, screening for subclinical disease and treatment of contacts; and tertiary prevention, ie, treatment of clinical disease to prevent complications of disease.
What is the reference method for the diagnosis of chlamydia infection?
The gold standard for the diagnosis of urogenital chlamydia infections is nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT). This test is run on either the vaginal swabs for women or first-catch urine for men. Testing can also be performed on endocervical or urethral swabs.
How is chlamydia treated and prevented?
Chlamydia Treatment and Care Persons with chlamydia should abstain from sexual activity for 7 days after single dose antibiotics or until completion of a 7-day course of antibiotics, to prevent spreading the infection to partners. It is important to take all of the medication prescribed to cure chlamydia.
What is secondary prevention for STD?
Secondary prevention by health care providers within the primary care setting might thus include behaviours such as education of patients, particularly those at high risk for acquisition of an STI, routine or periodic screening for STIs, and treatment and/or counselling for infected persons and their partners.
What is tertiary prevention?
Tertiary Prevention: While secondary prevention seeks to prevent the onset of illness, tertiary prevention aims to reduce the effects of the disease once established in an individual. Forms of tertiary prevention are commonly rehabilitation efforts.
What do you do if you test positive for chlamydia?
If you test positive for chlamydia, you should visit with your doctor or health care provider to discuss treatment for you and your sexual partners, as well as additional testing you may need. How Do I Find a Doctor? Many different types of health care providers can treat chlamydia.
What is the recommended first line pharmacologic treatment for chlamydia?
Doxycycline is also available in a delayed-release 200-mg tablet formulation, which requires once-daily dosing for 7 days and is as effective as doxycycline 100 mg twice daily for 7 days for treating urogenital C. trachomatis infection in men and women.
How do you diagnose chlamydia diagnosis?
Tests include:A urine test. A sample of your urine is analyzed in the laboratory for presence of this infection.A swab. For women, your doctor takes a swab of the discharge from your cervix for culture or antigen testing for chlamydia. This can be done during a routine Pap test.
Can you get chlamydia from kissing?
Chlamydia isn't spread through casual contact, so you CAN'T get chlamydia from sharing food or drinks, kissing, hugging, holding hands, coughing, sneezing, or sitting on the toilet. Using condoms and/or dental dams every time you have sex is the best way to help prevent chlamydia.
Are there treatment options for chlamydia and what are the long term complications and risks associated with this infection?
If detected early, chlamydia can be treated with a single dose of antibiotic. If complications from chlamydia infection are present – such as pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) in women – a longer course of antibiotics will be required.
How do doctors treat chlamydia?
Chlamydia infection is easily treated with the medicine azithromycin (also known as Zithromax). People with Chlamydia infection may not know they have it because they have no signs or symptoms. Your sex partner has given you azithromycin (pills) medicine or a prescription for azithromycin medicine.
Chlamydial Infection Among Adolescents and Adults
Chlamydial infection is the most frequently reported bacterial infectious disease in the United States, and prevalence is highest among persons aged ≤24 years ( 141, 784 ). Multiple sequelae can result from C. trachomatis infection among women, the most serious of which include PID, ectopic pregnancy, and infertility.
Chlamydial Infection Among Neonates
Prenatal screening and treatment of pregnant women is the best method for preventing chlamydial infection among neonates. C. trachomatis infection of neonates results from perinatal exposure to the mother’s infected cervix. Initial C.
Chlamydial Infections Among Infants and Children
Sexual abuse should be considered a cause of chlamydial infection among infants and children. However, perinatally transmitted C. trachomatis infection of the nasopharynx, urogenital tract, and rectum can persist for 2–3 years (see Sexual Assault or Abuse of Children).
How long after chlamydia treatment should you retest?
Women and men with chlamydia should be retested about three months after treatment of an initial infection, regardless of whether they believe that their sex partners were successfully treated. Infants infected with chlamydia may develop ophthalmia neonatorum (conjunctivitis) and/or pneumonia.
What are the risks of multiple chlamydial infections?
Women whose sex partners have not been appropriately treated are at high risk for re-infection. Having multiple chlamydial infections increases a woman’s risk of serious reproductive health complications, including pelvic inflammatory disease and ectopic pregnancy.
Can you take medication for chlamydia?
It is important to take all of the medication prescribed to cure chlamydia. Medication for chlamydia should not be shared with anyone. Although medication will stop the infection, it will not repair any permanent damage done by the disease.
Can chlamydia be cured with antibiotics?
Expedited Partner Therapy (EPT) Infographic: A Patient Resource. Chlamydia can be easily cured with antibiotics. HIV-positive persons with chlamydia should receive the same treatment as those who are HIV-negative. Persons with chlamydia should abstain from sexual activity for 7 days after single dose antibiotics or until completion ...
How to avoid chlamydia?
Preventing Chlamydia. The only way to totally avoid getting chlamydia, and STDs in general, is to forego having any kind of sex, whether it is vaginal, anal, or oral. If you are going to have sex, the two most important things you can do to lower your chances of getting chlamydia are:
How to help kids avoid chlamydia?
These two things are: Talk openly. “Parents can start by talking with their kids about sex and sexual health early, giving the kids accurate information” she says.
How many azithromycin pills are there for chlamydia?
Azithromycin “The main treatment for chlamydia is one gram of azithromycin, taken one time,” says Julie Dombrowski, MD, MPH, deputy director of clinical services for public health with the Seattle and King County HIV and STD Program in Washington. “That one gram comes as either two pills or four pills.” It is not expensive.
How long after chlamydia diagnosis should you be retested?
Both women and men with chlamydia should be retested about three months after they are first diagnosed and treated. Go to be retested even if you think your sex partners were successfully treated.
How long after taking antibiotics can you have sex?
If you were given a single dose of antibiotics to treat your chlamydia, you should not have any kind of sex for a full seven days after the day you took the medicine. If you’re taking antibiotics for a week, wait another seven days after the last day of your treatment. Be sure to take all of the medicine that is prescribed for you.
Can you take antibiotics for chlamydia?
Chlamydia Treatment and Prevention. Antibiotics quickly cure chlamydia, but reinfection is possible. Shutterstock. Chlamydia is easy to cure. “If you test positive for chlamydia, basically you take an antibiotic ,” says Jill Rabin, MD, cochief in the division of ambulatory care for women's health programs and prenatal care assistance program ...
Is doxycycline more expensive than azithromycin?
It is not expensive. Doxycycline If your doctor prescribes doxycycline, you will take two pills daily for one week. It costs somewhat more than azithromycin. Antibiotics can also cure chlamydia in infants, who can get the infection from their mothers, and treatment is essential for them. Without treatment, infants infected with chlamydia can ...
Why is chlamydia prevention important?
Chlamydia prevention programs have been implemented to reduce the burden of reproductive sequelae resulting from chlamydial infection. Because most reproductive complications of chlamydia occur in females and most infections are asymptomatic, the cornerstone of chlamydia prevention is screening young females for infection.
Which partner has the highest prevalence of chlamydia?
Male partners of females infected with chlamydia have the highest prevalence of infection and should be the top priority for chlamydia testing and treatment efforts among males. National screening recommendations have been in place for 18 years.
What is EPT in chlamydia?
EPT involves providing prescriptions or medications to a patient to take to his/her partner, without examining the partner. EPT has been shown to be useful in ensuring partner treatment among males and reducing repeat infections among females ( 17 ). Barriers exist in implementing chlamydia prevention strategies.
How many cases of chlamydia were reported in 2009?
A total of 1,244,180 cases were reported in 2009 ( 1 ). However, many infections are not detected, and an estimated 2.8 million infections occur each year ( 2 ).
Why is treating male sex partners of infected females important?
Finally, treating male sex partners of infected females is critical in preventing repeat infections in females, and modeling work has shown that it also is essential in interrupting chlamydia transmission in the population ( 16 ).
What is the best test for nucleic acid amplification?
Nucleic acid amplification tests are the preferred diagnostic tests because of their superior sensitivity, and they can be performed on easily collected specimens, such as urine or vaginal swabs. Highly efficacious treatment options include single-dose oral azithromycin or a 1-week course of doxycycline.
Can chlamydia cause infertility?
Once clinical PID occurs, up to 10%--15% of cases might lead to tubal factor infertility ( 4 ). Chlamydia also can lead to tubal infection that is not diagnosed as PID; thus, an even greater proportion of untreated infections likely lead to infertility.
Why is chlamydia prevention important?
Chlamydia prevention programs have been implemented to reduce the burden of reproductive sequelae resulting from chlamydial infection. Because most reproductive complications of chlamydia occur in females and most infections are asymptomatic, the cornerstone of chlamydia prevention is screening young females for infection.
What is EPT in chlamydia?
EPT involves providing prescriptions or medications to a patient to take to his/her partner, without examining the partner. EPT has been shown to be useful in ensuring partner treatment among males and reducing repeat infections among females. [ 17] Barriers exist in implementing chlamydia prevention strategies.
Why are young women reluctant to seek STD services?
Young females might lack knowledge about the need for screening and might be reluctant to seek STD services because of fears related to disclosing sexual activity to health-care providers and the societal stigma related to STDs.
What is the best test for nucleic acid amplification?
Nucleic acid amplification tests are the preferred diagnostic tests because of their superior sensitivity, and they can be performed on easily collected specimens, such as urine or vaginal swabs. Highly efficacious treatment options include single-dose oral azithromycin or a 1-week course of doxycycline.
Is chlamydia prevention enough?
Overall, available ecologic evidence suggests that current chlamydia prevention programs, focused primarily on screening young females, are having some impact on chlamydia prevalence and PID, but not enough.
Can a minor get STD treatment without parental consent?
All 50 states and the District of Columbia currently allow minors to seek care for STD diagnosis and treatment without parental consent; however, maintaining confidentiality in the billing and insurance claims process is challenging.
