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All forms of chlamydial infection are treated with antibiotics. If you have chlamydia, your doctor may prescribe one of the following:

Azithromycin
Doxycycline (Vibramycin)
Erythromycin
Ofloxacin
Levofloxacin

Treatment for chlamydia may involve the following:

Medications (as mentioned above)
Lifestyle changes

For chlamydial STD, it is important that you and your partner both be treated before you have sex again. All of the medicine must be taken as directed; this is critical to curing your infection .

A recent review of several studies suggests that giving patients some responsibility for treating their sexual partners reduces the risk of persistent or recurrent infection with both chlamydia and gonorrhea. This may take the form patients delivering antibiotics medication to their partners or providing information to partners on how to get evaluated and treated. Bringing home sampling kits to screen for Chlamydia also seemed to encourage partners to get treated. *

If you still have symptoms after the medication is finished, you may need to be tested again. Even if your symptoms disappear you are encouraged to return after treatment to be retested, since drug resistance, re-infection, spreading to other organs, and drug reactions are always possible.

As it is standard practice to test for multiple STDs when identifying one, it is also standard practice to treat for chlamydia when gonorrhea is identified, since the likelihood of both being present is high.

The scarring from pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) may require surgery to restore fertility or remove chronically infected tissue. The scarring caused by trachoma may require eyelid surgery or corneal transplant.

Reiter’s syndrome does not respond completely to antibiotics because the disease is an immune reaction to the infection that persists after the germ is eradicated. Treatment resembles that for rheumatoid arthritis . See Reiter’s syndrome for details.

References

Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety website. Available at: http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/diseases/psittacosis.html . Accessed July 28, 2005.

Canadian Paediatric Society website. Available at: http://www.cps.ca/english/statements/ID/ID02-03.htm . Accessed July 28, 2005.

Chlamydia. The National Women's Health Organization website. Available at: http://www.4women.gov/faq/stdchlam.htm . Accessed July 28, 2005.

Chlamydia infections in women. Medline Plus. US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health website. Available at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000660.htm . Accessed July 28, 2005.

International Trachoma Initiative website. Available at: http://www.trachoma.org/home.asp . Accessed July 28, 2005.

National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention. Division of Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/std/ AND http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/psittacosis_t.htm . Accessed July 28, 2005.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. National Institutes of Health website. Available at: http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/stdclam.htm . Accessed July 28, 2005.

British Association for Sexual Health and HIV guideline: 2006 UK national guideline for the management of genital tract infection with chlamydia trachomatis. London, England: British Assocaition for Sexual health and HIV(BASHH); 2006.

Miller KE: Diagnosis and treatment of chlamydia trachomatis infection. Am Fam Physician. 2006;73:1411-1416.

Updated Treatment section on 2/15/2007 according to the following study, as cited by DynaMed's Systematic Literature Surveillance : Trelle S, Shang A, Nartey L, Cassell JA, Low N. Improved effectiveness of partner notification for patients with sexually transmitted infections: systematic review. BMJ. 2007 Jan 19; [Epub ahead of print].

Last reviewed February 2007 by David Juan, MD

Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

Treatment for Chlamydia

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