New Epidemic: Chlamydia Hits An All-Time High
Chlamydia is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases. This infection is easily spread because it often has no associated symptoms and may be unknowingly passed to sexual partners. Since it is such a silent STD, detection is not always so easy.
Federal health officials reported that the number of Americans newly infected with the sexually transmitted diseases chlamydia and syphilis is on the rise.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the numbers from 2007 show that cases of chlamydia as well as syphilis rose for the third year in a row.
“These infections remain at very high levels, and frankly, unacceptably high,” says Dr. John M. Douglas Jr., director of the CDC’s Division of STD Prevention.
Chlamydia and gonorrhea, the two most commonly reported infectious diseases in the United States, together accounted for almost 1.5 million reported cases of sexually transmitted disease (STD) in 2007.
“Chlamydia is at a new all-time record of 1.1 million cases. It went up about 7 percent since 2006,” Douglas said.
If left untreated, chlamydia and gonorrhea can result in pelvic inflammatory disease , a condition that causes many women to become infertile, according to the report, Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance, 2007.
Chlamydia is eight times more common in Blacks than any other race. Black women between the ages of 15 to 19 years old had the highest rates of both chlamydia.
Sexually transmitted diseases take a significant economic toll. The CDC estimates that STDs cost the U.S. health-care system an estimated $15.3 billion annually.
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