Andrew Fitzgerald
HED 311
Dr. Pinedo
amf3878
Chlamydia
Diseases are everywhere in our world. We have tried to come up with ways of preventing diseases but some just can’t be stopped. With humans living in close vicinity of each other, we tend to come in contact with a lot more diseases. One of the most common ways of catching a disease is through intercourse. Humans have sex, it’s the way of life but there can also be risks involved. In the past year in America there have been reports of 19 million new cases involving an STD. There are many different STD’s but I plan on focusing on just one, chlamydia. Chlamydia is spreading like wild fire across the United States currently; you could call it an epidemic. I hope to inform you on what Chlamydia is, where it tends to appear more frequently and why.
Chlamydia defined by the CDC (Center of Disease Control and Prevention) “is a common sexually transmitted disease (STD) caused by infection with Chlamydia trachomatis” (CDC). Since it is an infection we know that it is transmitted from one host to another. Oral vaginal or anal sex with a person infected with chlamydia is how the infection is spread. Ejaculation does not have to occur to give or receive chlamydia. Another way of spreading the disease is though childbirth. When a woman isn’t aware of her infection and gives birth, the infection can spread to the newborn and stay with in that host for up to a year. In an article written by Jeffery Peipert a writer for The New England Journal of Medicine states “An infant born to a mother with active infection has a risk of acquiring infection at any anatomical site of 50 to 75 percent. Approximately 30 to 50 percent of infants born to chlamydia-positive mothers will have conjunctivitis, and at least 50 percent of infants with chlamydial conjunctivitis will also have nasopharyngeal infection” (Peipert 2003. Pg1). Chlamydia is considered an acute disease due to its sudden development and the short amount of time a person can have the infection. Acute diseases are caused by an infection or virus and tend to be curable with in a short time depending on the disease. To track the exact chlamydia’s incubation period would be a waste of time. Chlamydia’s incubation period is quite sporadic and may range from days after exposure, to months. The average time it takes chlamydia to be noticed is usually one to three weeks after sexual contact with someone who is infected. The scariest thing about chlamydia is that it is an asymptomatic infection; it travels from one host to the other undetected like James bond. In some cases symptoms do occur like mucopurulent discharge from the cervix and hypertrophic cervical ectopy in women and in men we see urethral discharge of mucopurulent or purulent material, dysuria, or urethral pruritus (Peipert Pg1). Chlamydia is on of the most curable STD’s for men and women both but with the disease being asymptomatic it can go untreated and result in fertility problems or chronic pain...
