More than 1 million new cases of Chlamydia were registered in 2006 in the U.S., according to a government report released on Tuesday.

Dr. John M. Douglas of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said that Chlamydia is a threatening sexual transmitted disease, which, left untreated, can cause inflammatory disease in women, infertility and can increase the risk of transmitting and developing HIV. On the other hand, it is easily treated if caught earlier.

"STDs pose a serious and ongoing threat to millions of Americans. Young women, racial and ethnic populations, and men who have sex with men are particularly hard-hit by these diseases -- STDs can have serious health consequences, particularly if they are undiagnosed and left untreated." Dr. Douglas said during a teleconference.

According to this report, 1,030,911 cases were registered in 2006 compared to 976,000 cases reported in 2005.

The report also revealed that almost 19 million sexually transmitted diseases, in the medical language called STDs were reported in 2006 among people with ages between 15 and 24. However, Dr. Douglas said that health officials are very concerned about the cases of STDs that can go undiagnosed or unreported.

Chlamydia is the most common U.S. sexual transmitted disease. The percentage of people who had it increased with 5.6 units from 2005, to 347.8 cases per 100,000 people.

The public health officials are very concerned about the Chlamydia spreading because it is a very difficult disease, which has no obvious symptoms once the human body infected. 

Chlamydia rates seem to be eight times higher among the black people than the whites’ are, while another highly transmitted disease, gonorrhea is 18 times higher.

Gonorrhea, seemed to have dropped with 74 percent from 1975 to 1997 but it roses with 5.5 percent from 2005 with 358, 66 new cases reported in 2006, according to the report. From the beginning of 2007, until October there were registered 320 cases of gonorrhea. This disease seems to have great resistance to antibiotics as Dr. Douglas said.

Chlamydia and gonorrhea are not the only sexually transmitted diseases with high rates among sexual active people. Syphilis is also causing concern among the health officials. The disease, which can lead to death, shows up as genital sores as first. There were 9,800 cases reported in 2006 with 1,100 cases more than the number reported in the previous year.

Dr. Stuart Berman another member of CDC also expressed his concern about the large number of this kind of cases. "I don't think the message is that the forest is burning and that a huge epidemic is out of control," he said.

STDs affect mostly young women, minority groups and homosexual men according to this report