Chlymidia Introduction
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
What is Chlymidia?
Chlmydia is known as a sexually transmitted infection (STI) caused by the bacterium ‘chlamydia trachomatis’. The number of new diagnoses has been steadily increasing each year since the mid-1990s in the UK, and chlymidia has now become the most commonly diagnosed STI.
Chlamydia is often called the ‘silent’ disease, due to most people who get it do not experience any obvious symptoms. Roughly 50% of men and 70-80% of women who get the chlamydia infection will have zero symptoms and many cases of chlamydia remain undiagnosed. Please see the symptoms page for detailed infomation.
How common is it?
The number of confirmed cases of chlamydia rose from 121,791 to 123,018 between 2007 and 2008. The people most likely to be infected are under the age of 25, and 65% (80,258) of all new chlamydia diagnoses made in 2008 were in young adults between the ages of 16 and 24.
Outlook
The chlamydia infection can generally be easily diagnosed through a simple urine or swab test, and once diagnosed it can be treated with antibiotics. Untreated chlamydia can easily lead to more serious health problems and infertility. Please see the diagnosis page for more information.
If you are under 25 and live in the UK, you can get a confidential chlamydia test through the National Chlamydia Screening Programme. People over 25 can visit their local GP or a GUM (genitourinary medicine) or sexual health clinic to organise a test.