Originally Published:20071201.
Chlamydia remains the most commonly reported infectious disease in the United States, with more than 1 million cases diagnosed in 2006. Yet an estimated 2.8 million new cases go undiagnosed each year.
In the national Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance Report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in mid-November, the national rate of reported chlamydia was 347.8 cases per 100,000 population in 2006, a 5.6 percent increase from 2005. The disease hits women hardest, with the case rate for females in 2006 three times higher than that for males. Black women are disproportionately affected, with a rate of 1,760.9 per 100,000, compared to 237.0 per 100,000 white females and 761.3 per 100,000 Hispanic females.
The report urged all sexually active women younger than 26 as well as older women with risk factors such as new or multiple sex partners to be screened annually for chlamydia. New federal treatment guidelines also recommend women be retested for chlamydia approximately three months after treatment because of the risk for reinfection by male partners who have not been diagnosed or treated.
The report also found gonorrhea cases have remained stable with a slight increase in recent years, with a rate of 120.9 cases per 100,000 population in 2006, up by 5.5 percent from the previous year and the second consecutive increase. Syphilis cases, which reached an all-time low in 2000, rose for the sixth consecutive year, according to the report.
The report is available at www.cdc.gov.
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