Recurrent chlamydia common in young women

Nearly 30 percent of women in their late teens suffer recurrent infection with chlamydia, a rate higher than previously recognized in this population, new research shows.

Recurrent bouts of chlamydia "comprise a substantial health burden among young women," Dr. Linda M. Niccolai, from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues note. Their findings, they say, suggest that enhanced efforts to prevent recurrent chlamydia infections in young women are "urgently needed."

The findings, which appear in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine for March, stem from a study of 411 young women between the ages of 14 and 19 years old who visited one of 10 community-based health centers that provided reproductive health care between June 1998 and September 2001.

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The women were evaluated at the first visit and 6, 12 and 18 months later. A subset of 386 women was followed long term.

During an average follow-up of 4.7 years, 52.6 percent of subjects were diagnosed with chlamydia trachomatis infection. A total of 123 women or 29.9 percent of the total sample had recurrent infections.

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Roughly half of all chlamydia infections diagnosed were recurrent and the median time to recurrent infection was 5.2 months, the authors note.

Prevention counseling, behavioral interventions, promotion of regular condom use and innovative partner-treatment strategies are some of the ways of potentially reducing recurrent chlamydia infections among young women, the authors say.

Chlamydia is one of the most common sexually transmitted disease among women and often causes no symptoms. The bacterial infection can lead to a whole host of problems including pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility. It can also make a woman more likely to acquire or pass on HIV.