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
