How Long Can You Have Chlamydia Without Knowing
Chlamydia is sometimes called a silent infection because the majority of people who have chlamydia regardless of gender never notice symptoms. People who do notice symptoms often dont recognize the signs that they have chlamydia until a few weeks after theyve been infected. Because chlamydia cases are often asymptomatic, its easy to spread chlamydia to someone else without realizing it. And its easy to miss out on receiving the treatment needed to prevent the serious complications that can result from chlamydia.
Donât Miss: Signs Of Gonorrhea Or Chlamydia
How Is Chlamydia Screening Done
A person can test for chlamydia at home or in the lab. They can take either a urine sample or a swab.
- Females can take a swab, place it in a container, and send it to a laboratory.
- Males will usually use a urine test.
A doctor can advise individuals on the best option. They may also recommend rectal or throat testing, especially for people who are living with HIV.
Home screening tests are available, but it is not always easy to do them correctly at home. A healthcare provider will usually recommend following up on any home tests by visiting a doctors office.
The person will likely need to provide a urine sample for a test to confirm a diagnosis. After treatment, they will need to retake the test to ensure that the treatment has worked.
If anyone wishes to try home testing, chlamydia screening test kits are available for purchase online.
Risk factors for getting chlamydia include:
- Having unprotected sex .
- Having more than one sex partner.
- Having a high-risk partner or partners. This includes people who have more than one sex partner or sex partners who have chlamydia.
- Starting sexual activity before age 18.
Any child with chlamydia needs to be seen by a doctor to determine the cause and to assess for possible sexual abuse. For more information, see the topic Child Abuse and Neglect.
Interactions With Other Drugs
It is not recommended to mix different drugs in one injection syringe or in a single dropper.
Antibiotic cefataxime can cause bleeding if it is combined with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or anti-aggregates.
The risk of disrupting the kidneys increases with a combination of loop diuretics and polymyxin B with aminoglycoside antibiotics.
Tetracyclines should not be combined with medications that include metal ions. Antacids, as well as preparations of iron, calcium and magnesium can be referred to such medicines.
Do not combine tetracyclines with penicillin and cephalosporin antibiotics, because of the fundamentally different mechanism of action of the drugs.
Anti-acid agents, ethyl alcohol impair the absorption of antibiotics from the digestive tract. In addition, ethanol increases the toxic effect of drugs.
Read Also: Pcr Test For Chlamydia And Gonorrhea
Follow Treatment Advice Make Sure Chlamydia Is Properly Treated
However, the sexual partner may opt to be tested for chlamydia and wait for their results. If they do this, there should be no sexual activity while waiting to be tested, until their results are available, and then for the time period to complete treatment, if they test positive.
In many ways, including the fact no tests are 100% accurate, it is preferable for both of you to be treated, and the easiest option, is to take your antibiotics both at the same time. This is called epidemiological treatment, and is good medical practice.
If all the tablets were taken correctly and there has been no sex on treatment, there is no need to repeat the chlamydia test .
However a test of cure should be performed if:
- there is chlamydia in the rectum,
- it chlamydia is treated in pregnancy,
- it chlamydia is treated with erythromycin,
- if you have symptoms when diagnosed with chlamydia, and these symptoms have not resolved, or
- if any of the rules about taking treatment were not followed.
Is Zithromax Suitable For Me
Tämä antibiootti sopii useimmille ihmisille klamydian ja muiden tulehduksellisten sairauksien hoitoon. Sitä ei kuitenkaan tule käyttää, jos:
This antibiotic is suitable for most people to treat chlamydia and other inflammatory diseases. However, it should not be used if:
- You are suffering from liver or kidney disease
- You are suffering from heart problems
- You are pregnant or breastfeeding
Don’t Miss: Can You Get Chlamydia On Your Own
Chlamydia Vaccine Trials For Koalas
But help could be on the way for Australias koalas.
A chlamydia vaccine, developed by researcher Timms over the past decade, is being tested among the countrys koala population as a way to protect the animals from serious infections.
Control trials are ongoing to test the effectiveness of the vaccine on small groups of koalas often about 20 or 30 at a time, Timms said. The current trial is the largest yet, involving 400 koalas.
Some koalas are vaccinated when they are brought to veterinary hospitals with complaints other than chlamydia, while others are given the shot as part of coexisting conservation efforts, he added.
We know the vaccine can reduce the infection rate, Timms said. It doesnt reduce it to zero. There are no vaccines that do that, but it quashes the infection load way down.
He said while it is hoped the process will reduce the infection rate, it is hard to monitor the spread of chlamydia in a wild population.
University of Sydneys Krockenberger, who is involved in a separate vaccine trial, said the purpose of the drug isnt to reverse the progress of the disease in individual koalas. Once theyre chronically infected, theyre often able to live reasonably happily, they just cant breed, he said.
He said instead the hope is that by reducing the levels of infectiousness in koalas with chlamydia, researchers will be able to prevent the disease from spreading to new hosts and thereby maintain a breeding population.
What Do I Need To Know If I Get Treated For Chlamydia
If youre getting treated for chlamydia:
- Take all of your medicine the way your nurse or doctor tells you to, even if any symptoms you may be having go away sooner. The infection stays in your body until you finish the antibiotics.
- Your partner should also get treated for chlamydia so you dont re-infect each other or anyone else.
- Dont have sex for 7 days. If you only have 1 dose of medication, wait for 7 days after you take it before having sex. If youre taking medicine for 7 days, dont have sex until youve finished all of your pills.
- Get tested again in 3-4 months to make sure your infection is gone.
- Dont share your medicine with anyone. Your nurse or doctor may give you a separate dose of antibiotics for your partner. Make sure you both take all of the medicine you get.
- Even if you finish your treatment and the chlamydia is totally gone, its possible to get a new chlamydia infection again if youre exposed in the future. Chlamydia isnt a one-time-only deal. So use condoms and get tested regularly.
You May Like: List Of Antibiotics For Chlamydia
How Is Chlamydia Treated In Pregnant Women
Doxycycline, levofloxacin, and ofloxacin are all contraindicated in women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. Because of this, the recommended treatment is a one-time dose of azithromycin. If azithromycin is not well-tolerated, alternative treatments include amoxicillin or one of several formulations of erythromycin .
Pregnant women who have been treated for chlamydia should return after three weeks to be retested to establish that they have been cured. They should return again after three months to evaluate for reinfection. Untreated chlamydia in pregnant women can lead to early rupture of the fluid sac containing the fetus and premature delivery. It can also lead to pneumonia or conjunctivitis in the newborn .
Treatment For Chlamydia Is Quick And Easy
Two antibiotics are most often used for treating chlamydia:
- Azithromycin The main treatment for chlamydia is one gram of azithromycin, taken one time, says , deputy director of clinical services for public health with the Seattle and King County HIV and STD Program in Washington. That one gram comes as either two pills or four pills. It is not expensive.
- Doxycycline If your doctor prescribes doxycycline, you will take two pills daily for one week. It costs somewhat more than azithromycin.
Antibiotics can also cure chlamydia in infants, who can get the infection from their mothers, and treatment is essential for them. Without treatment, infants infected with chlamydia can develop conjunctivitis, which can cause blindness, or pneumonia, which can be fatal.
Also Check: Drugs Used To Treat Gonorrhea And Chlamydia
Urogenital Infection In Men
In men, chlamydial infection of the lower genital tract causes urethritis and, on occasion, epididymitis. Urethritis is secondary to C. trachomatis infection in approximately 15 to 55 percent of men, although the prevalence is lower among older men.2 Symptoms, if present, include a mild to moderate, clear to white urethral discharge. This is best observed in the morning, before the patient voids. To observe the discharge, the penis may need to be milked by applying pressure from the base of the penis to the glans.
The diagnosis of nongonococcal urethritis can be confirmed by the presence of a mucopurulent discharge from the penis, a Gram stain of the discharge with more than five white blood cells per oil-immersion field, and no intracellular gram-negative diplococci.2 A positive result on a leukocyte esterase test of first-void urine or a microscopic examination of first-void urine showing 10 or more white blood cells per high-powered field also confirms the diagnosis of urethritis.
For diagnosis of C. trachomatis infection in men with suspected urethritis, the nucleic acid amplification technique to detect chlamydial and gonococcal infections is best .4 Empiric treatment should be considered for patients who are at high risk of being lost to follow-up.
Persistence In Vitro& In Vivo
In vitro or in vivo evidence of chlamydial persistence can be demonstrated in all chlamydia species, and can be routinely induced in the laboratory when infected cells are exposed to -lactam antibiotics, IFN- or are deprived of iron supplements or amino acids . Persistent or aberrant RBs continue to synthesize proteins and replicate DNA, but they halt cell division. The resulting inclusions contain small numbers of very large aberrant RBs, and yield a prolonged infection caused by viable but nonculturable chlamydia . Removal of the stressor results in septum formation, RB division and differentiation to EBs . Failure to respond to antibiotic treatment can follow establishment of chlamydial persistence in vitro, and it may be challenging in vivo to differentiate persistence from potential cases of antibiotic resistance. Although uncomplicated infections are quite responsive to antibiotics, unresolved genital, ocular and respiratory infections that fail to respond to antibiotic treatment are extensively documented . It is possible that this is a function of poor therapeutic control of aberrant, persistent Chlamydiae in patients.
Both in vitro and in vivo evidence of penicillin treatment show that a dramatic change in the bacterial cell structure can suspend the developmental lifecycle and trigger a persistent state.
Read Also: Can A Man Get Rid Of Chlamydia Without Treatment
Management Of Sex Partners
Sex partners should be referred for evaluation, testing, and presumptive treatment if they had sexual contact with the partner during the 60 days preceding the patients onset of symptoms or chlamydia diagnosis. Although the exposure intervals defining identification of sex partners at risk are based on limited data, the most recent sex partner should be evaluated and treated, even if the time of the last sexual contact was > 60 days before symptom onset or diagnosis.
How Common Is Chlamydia
Chlamydia is the most common STI caused by bacteria. Nearly 2 million cases of chlamydia were reported to the CDC in 2019. The number of infections is likely even higher. When compared to previous years, 2019 infection rates increased among people of all genders, all races and ethnicities, and in every region of the U.S. Most cases of chlamydia are asymptomatic, which means there are no signs or symptoms of an infection. Many of these cases likely go unreported.
Certain demographic characteristics may make you more likely to get diagnosed with chlamydia. Youre more likely to get diagnosed if youre:
- A teen or young adult aged 15 to 24. More than half of all diagnosed chlamydia cases in the U.S. occur in this age group.
- A cisgender woman aged 15 to 24. Young women in this age group are targeted for chlamydia screenings, and the rate of infection among those who are tested is high.
- A man who has sex with men . Chlamydia infections disproportionately affect men who have sex with men.
- Black and non-Hispanic. Chlamydia infections disproportionately affect non-Hispanic Black populations.
Read Also: Can I Have Chlamydia And Not Know
Whats The Treatment For Chlamydia
Chlamydia is usually easy to get rid of. Your nurse or doctor will get you antibiotics to treat the infection. Sometimes you only have to take one dose of medication. Another chlamydia treatment lasts for 7 days. Your doctor will help you figure out which treatment is best for you.
If youre treated for chlamydia, its really important for your sexual partners to get treated also. Otherwise, you can keep passing the infection back and forth, or to other people. Sometimes your doctor will give you medicine for both you and your partner.
Also Check: Can You Get Chlamydia In The Mouth
Study Design And Participants
We enrolled males and females 12 to 21 years of age who were residing in four long-term, sex-segregated youth correctional facilities in Los Angeles. The study began in December 2009 and was initially limited to female participants. Because of the slow accrual of participants, higher-than-expected rates of early discharge from the facilities, and emerging data suggesting that cure rates with azithromycin were lower among chlamydia-infected males than previous studies had indicated,9 the protocol was amended to include male participants, beginning in August 2011.
You May Like: Azithromycin And Doxycycline Together For Chlamydia
How Do You Prevent Chlamydia
Using a new male or female condom or dental dam every time you have sex is the best way to protect against chlamydia.
Chlamydia can be passed on by sharing sex toys. Always cover sex toys with a new condom and wash them after use to reduce your risk of getting chlamydia and other STIs.
Its important to regularly test for chlamydia, even if you dont have any symptoms, especially if youve had multiple sexual partners.
The contraceptive pill and other types of contraception wont prevent you getting chlamydia, and neither will PrEP.
Use Of The Antibiotics For Cervicitis During Pregnancy
Cervicitis in pregnancy is considered a very dangerous disease, as its complications can be spontaneous termination of pregnancy, fading or impaired development of the fetus. Therefore, to start cervicitis treatment is necessary as soon as possible.
Before appointing antibiotics for cervicitis in a pregnant woman, the doctor must determine the type of infectious agent. For this, the following diagnostics are carried out:
- bakposev cervical secretions
- polymerase reaction
- linked immunosorbent assay.
If nevertheless there is a need for the use of antibiotics, then the drugs in this case are selected the most sparing and safe, for example, Doxycycline. It is preferable to use antibiotic therapy in cervicitis in the second half of pregnancy.
Donât Miss: How To Cure Chlamydia At Home
Read Also: Can You Get Rid Of Chlamydia
What Is The Treatment For Chlamydia
Chlamydia can be easily cured with antibiotics. HIV-positive persons with chlamydia should receive the same treatment as those who are HIV-negative.
Persons with chlamydia should abstain from sexual activity for 7 days after single dose antibiotics or until completion of a 7-day course of antibiotics, to prevent spreading the infection to partners. It is important to take all of the medication prescribed to cure chlamydia. Medication for chlamydia should not be shared with anyone. Although medication will stop the infection, it will not repair any permanent damage done by the disease. If a persons symptoms continue for more than a few days after receiving treatment, he or she should return to a health care provider to be reevaluated.
Repeat infection with chlamydia is common. Women whose sex partners have not been appropriately treated are at high risk for re-infection. Having multiple chlamydial infections increases a womans risk of serious reproductive health complications, including pelvic inflammatory disease and ectopic pregnancy. Women and men with chlamydia should be retested about three months after treatment of an initial infection, regardless of whether they believe that their sex partners were successfully treated.
Infants infected with chlamydia may develop ophthalmia neonatorum and/or pneumonia. Chlamydial infection in infants can be treated with antibiotics.
How To Use Over The Counter Antibiotics To Safely Treat Chlamydia
It is not a sin or wrong to go for Chlamydia over the counter antibioticsbut our major concern is your safety and using it more effectively. Do not ignore your doctors instructions when using your prescribe drug. Always go for the label if you must buy from the counter. Make sure you check
Recommended Reading: How Do You Test For Chlamydia And Gonorrhea
What Happens If Chlamydia Goes Untreated
If a person is not treated for chlamydia, complications may occur. Women frequently develop pelvic inflammatory disease . PID can cause infertility , chronic pelvic pain, tubal pregnancies, and the continued spread of the disease. In men, untreated chlamydia can cause urethral infection and complications such as swollen and tender testicles. Chlamydia infection during pregnancy may result in premature rupture of membranes, preterm delivery and possible tubal pregnancy in a small percent of women. In addition, chlamydia can cause conjunctival and pneumonic infection in the newborn. Persons with a chlamydia infection have an increased chance of getting other infections such as gonorrhea or HIV.