STD Common Chlamydia (LINK)
August 9th 2007 00:44
Pap smear showing C. trachomatis (H&E stain)
Chlamydia is the most common bacterial STD in the United States, and teenagers have the highest Chlamydia infection rate of any group. A woman usually receives the bacteria from a man during intercourse. She can carry it in her cervix, uterus, tubes and ovaries for months or years and not know it. When it does flare up, it causes pain: pelvic pain, painful intercourse, and painful bowel movements. Often a woman will also have a fever and urethral discharge. Infertility is commonly an unavoidable result. A dangerous feature of Chlamydia is that a person can be infected for days or years and not be aware of it. (Pregnancy Center East)
The diagnosis of genital chlamydial infections evolved rapidly from the 1990s through 2006. Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT), such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), transcription mediated amplification (TMA), and the DNA strand displacement assay (SDA) now are the mainstays. As of January 2007, the most commonly used and widely studied chlamydia NAATs in the US and many other industrialized countries are Aptima (Gen-Probe), Probe-Tec (Becton-Dickinson), and Amplicor (Roche). The Aptima Combo II assay tests simltaneously for C. trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the cause of gonorrhea. NAAT for chlamydia may be performed on swab specimens collected from the cervix (women) or urethra (men), on self-collected vaginal swabs, or on voided urine. Urine and self-collected swab testing facilitates the performance of screening tests in settings where genital examination is impractical. At present, the NAATs have regulatory approval only for testing urogenital specimens, although rapidly evolving research indicates that the Aptima test may give reliable results on rectal specimens.
Because of improved test accuracy, ease of specimen management, convenience in specimen management, and ease of screening sexually active men and women, the NAATs have largely replaced culture, the historic gold standard for chlamydia diagnosis, and the non-amplified probe tests, such as Pace II (Gen-Probe). The latter test is relatively insensitive, successfully detecting only 60-80% of infections in asymptomatic women, and occasionally giving falsely positive results. Culture remains useful in selected circumstances and is currently the only assay approved for testing non-genital specimens. (Wikipedia)
Treatments for Chlamydia
Chlamydia infection can be effectively cured with antibiotics once it is detected. Current Centers for Disease Control guidelines provide for the following treatments:
* Azithromycin 1 gram oral as a single dose, or
* Doxycycline 100 milligrams twice daily for seven days.
* Tetracycline
* Erythromycin
* Amoxicillin once a day until infection subsides.
Untested Treatments
* Ciprofloxacin 500 milligrams twice daily for 3 days.
- (Although this is not an approved method of treatment, as it is shown to be ineffective and may simply delay symptoms.)
Pathophysiology of Chlamydia
Chlamydiae replicate intracellularly, within a membrane-bound structure termed an inclusion. It is inside this inclusion, which somehow avoids lysosomal fusion and subsequent degradation, that the metabolically inactive "elementary body" (EB) form of chlamydia becomes the replicative "reticulate body" (RB). The multiplying RBs then become EBs again and burst out of the host cell to continue the infection cycle. Since Chlamydiae are obligate intracellular parasites, they cannot be cultured outside of host cells, leading to many difficulties in research.
To read more about this in depth, you can find it from this Wikipedia Link
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Comment by Anonymous
But thanks for reminding us.
Lay-in
Comment by katyzzz
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katyzzz...sorry it took me so long.
Comment by Jessicca
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Great to see you stopping by again. ^_^
It is indeed a scary fact but how many can be aware of this? Time will tell.
Have a blessed weekend
Jessicca