Poor youths at risk for chlamydia

As many as one in 20 teenage girls and women, and more than 2% of the general population in America are infected with chlamydia, a sexually transmitted disease, U.S. researchers have reported.

Pregnant women attending publicly funded clinics and economically disadvantaged youths are especially at risk of the bacterial infection, which can cause serious problems including infertility if untreated, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey found.

“STDs often have no symptoms and therefore frequently go unrecognized and undiagnosed,” said Dr. John Douglas, director of the CDC’s STD prevention programs.

“Stepping up screening and prevention efforts is critical to ensuring that young people do not suffer the long-term effects of untreated chlamydia, including infertility,” Douglas said.

Federally funded efforts have prevented millions of infections and saved an estimated $5 billion in direct medical costs over the last 30 years, the CDC reported last week at a meeting of the International Society for Sexually Transmitted Diseases Research in Amsterdam.

For the study, CDC researchers analyzed answers to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a survey of tens of thousands of Americans taken between 1999 and 2002.