Chlamydia, a disease caused by a bacteria called Chlamydia trachomatis, affects 10% of sexually active teenagers in the UK.
In the US, about 5% of the population is infected.
Chlamydia can be transmitted in two ways.
One way is through unprotected sex and another way is in utero or while the child is passing through the infected mother's birth canal.
Infections in newborns can lead to complications such as pneumonia and serious eye infections.
The most susceptible areas of infection in women are the cervix and the urethra.
Chlamydia symptoms are vaginal discharges or a burning sensation during urination.
This happens when the infection has spread to the cervix or the fallopian tubes.
Other symptoms women experience are nausea, fever, lower back pain, pain during sex, and bleeding in between menstrual periods.
Men can experience symptoms of abnormal penile discharges and a burning sensation during urination.
Itching and burning around the penis' opening and painful swelling of the testicles may also manifest.
Anal sex can also be a medium for chlamydia infection.
It can eventually cause pain, bleeding and discharges in the rectum.
If a person contracts chlamydia infection through oral sex, his/her throat and mouth will be infected.
But this disease can be asymptomatic, showing no signs at all.
In women, around 70%-80% cases showed no symptoms while estimates of asymptomatic cases in men range from 25%-50%.
The common asymptomatic cases of chlamydia infections has led many to dub this disease as "a silent killer".
If left untreated, chlamydia infection can lead to another disease called pelvic inflammatory disorder which leads to complications, such as infertility among others.
How does infertility happen? Chlamydia infection can easily spread to the uterus and fallopian tubes causing inflammation that prevents the ova from traveling to meet the sperm cells.
This disease called pelvic inflammatory disease (PIV) is the affliction of 40% of women in the US.
If you feel the abnormal changes in your body which indicate an infection, have yourself tested at an STD clinic.
The doctor will conduct a physical examination that will check among many things, signs of infection in your genital area such as pus and tenderness in the vagina and pus in the penis.
Findings of a high white-blood-cell count and fever could also indicate infection.
Urine tests will also be conducted and the samples will be sent to a laboratory for inspection.
The doctor will also test you for other sexually transmitted diseases because chlamydia patients also acquire other sexual infections like gonorrhea or trichomona.
If results are positive, the doctor will prescribe certain antibiotics that will help treat the infection.
One course of antibiotics can treat the disease.
But for other people, treatment through antibiotics may take time.
Although antibiotic treatment may vary in effectiveness among people, it is important to keep undergoing the treatment to stop the disease.
Awareness of what chlamydia is and how it affects infected people can prevent one from contracting it.
Apart from that, always have protected sex and see your doctor.
Chlamydia - Know more about this STD before it's too late.