Infection prevalent among female army recruits.

2003 SEP 4 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A new study reports that nearly 10% of female U.S. Army recruits tested positive for the bacterium that causes the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia - Chlamydia trachomatis.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the Department of Defense and the Army also found that the number of recruits testing positive for chlamydia increased over the 4-year duration of the study, from 1996 to 1999.

"These rates are of great concern, and the Army should implement routine screening of its female recruits at entry into the military to protect their health," says Charlotte Gaydos, DrPH, associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and lead author of the study published in the July 2003 issue of journal Sexually Transmitted Diseases.

"While chlamydia infection usually shows no symptoms in women, it is a major underlying cause of pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, and infertility," says Gaydos.

"These sustained high rates of chlamydia infection in female Army recruits provide clear justification for a chlamydia control program for young women entering the Army, consisting of initial screening and treatment followed by periodic rescreening. Programs for screening and treating chlamydia infection have proven to be cost effective, especially when compared to the health problems associated with untreated infections, and a ...