Half-Hour Test for Chlamydia Developed : Sexually Transmitted Disease Spreads Quicker Than Herpes

Scientists have developed a half-hour test for detecting a sexually transmitted disease that strikes up to 10 million Americans each year and is a leading cause of infertility in women.

Because it is difficult to diagnose and in many cases causes no symptoms, the infection called Chlamydia trachomatis has been spreading more rapidly than gonorrhea or herpes--despite the fact it can easily be treated with antibiotics, doctors said.

About 4.5 million to 10 million cases of chlamydial infections are reported each year in the United States, contrasted with 2 million to 3 million of gonorrhea and 200,000 to 500,000 of genital herpes.

Strikes Both Sexes

Although it strikes members of both sexes, the disease seems particularly prevalent among sexually active teen-age girls and pregnant women, said Dr. Julius Schachter, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco.

Officials at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta said as many as 50,000 American women a year may be rendered infertile by the microorganism, which infects and, if unchecked, scars mucous membranes.

“The infections can scar the Fallopian tubes, leading to infertility and ectopic (outside the womb) pregnancies,” said Dr. Donald Avoy, general manager of the Infectious Disease Diagnostic Division of Syva Co. of Palo Alto, developer of the new diagnostic test.

Half the babies born to infected mothers--or about 50,000 each year--suffer eye, ear and throat infections. Those who go untreated are at high risk for pneumonia.

Can Cause Blindness

If unchecked, chlamydia also can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, sterility and an eye infection called trachoma that has blinded 20 million people worldwide.

“Until now, the only method available to diagnose chlamydia utilized culture techniques, a time-consuming and technically demanding procecure that requires at least 48 to 72 hours to complete,” said Avoy, who is also director of medical affairs at Syva, which develops, manufactures and markets diagnostic systems.

“The new technology now enables laboratories to determine whether patients have chlamydia within just 30 minutes upon receipt of the sample. Doctors have answers quicker, patients receive appropriate treatment earlier, preventing further spread.”

The disease can easily be treated with tetracycline, he said.

Costly Screening

The problem has been with detection since there are usually no symptoms and screening costs are high--$35 to $50, contrasted with $1 or $2 for a gonorrhea test. The new test cuts the cost in half.

“It’s possible for women to have low-level chlamydial infections and be rendered infertile without knowing about it--until it’s too late,” Avoy said.

When they do appear, the symptoms--burning, painful urination, vaginal discharge, pelvic and abdominal pain--resemble those of gonorrhea.

“If a doctor suspects gonorrhea, he’ll give the woman penicillin. If she has chlamydia or, as is the case 40% of the time, both chlamydia and gonorrhea, the penicillin will suppress the symptoms and allow the chlamydia to grow,” Avoy said.

Often, the symptoms of chlamydial infection disappear by themselves after a brief interval, leaving the patient with a false sense of security.

Tough Organism

“The organism is so tough, chlorine in pools can’t kill it. We’ve had kids picking up eye infections from pools where infected kids had been swimming,” Avoy said.

“The organism can also survive at minus 70 degrees--the temperature at which sperm at sperm banks are kept frozen. Thus it’s possible for an unsuspecting infected male to pass the disease on to the woman who is artificially inseminated with his sperm.”

Chlamydia “is not some mean new organism that has just arrived to plague us with a new disease,” Avoy said, noting that signs of the disease were detected in 4,000-year-old Egyptian mummies.