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FRIDAY, Sept. 5 (HealthDayNews) -- Almost one in 10 female U.S. Army recruits have tested positive for chlamydia, the nation's most common sexually transmitted disease.
And the prevalence of the disease among the female recruits increased during the 3 1/2-year study, researchers from Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. Army and the Defense Department report in the journal Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
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The researchers conducted urine-based testing for chlamydia among 23,010 female Army recruits between January 1996 and June 1999. The recruits also answered questions about sexual history, presence or absence of symptoms, and prior history of sexually transmitted diseases.
The findings underscore the need for routine testing of female Army recruits to protect their health, says study author Charlotte Gaydos, an associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The Army doesn't screen new recruits for the disease, but the Navy and Marines do, she adds.
"These rates are of great concern," Gaydos says. The incidence of chlamydia also provides "clear justification," she says, for screening of women entering the Army, treatment when necessary and periodic re-screening.
Chlamydia can be detected by a simple urine test and is cured easily with antibiotics. But the disease often goes unnoticed because most women who get it show no symptoms and screening is not routine, Gaydos says.
In fact, about 75 percent of American women and 50 percent of men with chlamydia have no symptoms, so they're unaware of their infections and therefore may not seek care, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found.
"It's been called the silent disease; it just doesn't produce symptoms for the most part," Gaydos says.
The Hopkins researchers cite statistics showing 3 million to 4 million Americans are infected with chlamydia each year.
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