Washington: Number of Chlamydia Cases Jumps 12 Percent

The number of chlamydia cases in Washington rose 12 percent last year, nearly three-quarters of which were reported in residents ages 15-24. Health officials are urging all sexually active women under 25 to get tested for the disease at least yearly. "This is a disease of young people," said Katherine Gudgel, coordinator of the state chlamydia-screening project.

According to Washington's annual report of STDs released Monday, chlamydia cases jumped from 14,935 in 2002 to 16,796 last year -- an all-time high since the state began aggressively screening for the disease in 1988. The overall incidence rate increased from 247 per 100,000 residents to 275 -- slightly under the reported national incidence rate of 296 per 100,000. Women ages 15-19 have the state's highest rates of chlamydia with 2,273 cases per 100,000, compared with 391 per 100,000 for men the same age.

Gudgel said doctors often fail to discuss STDs with patients and can overlook asymptomatic patients. The state Department of Health last week mailed chlamydia-screening recommendations to about 13,000 private-practice physicians, urging them to increase testing of their patients. A 2002 report from the nonprofit National Coalition of Quality Assurance, which monitors the quality of managed care plans, found that only around one-third of female patients ages 16-20 -- the target population for chlamydia screening -- are routinely tested at managed care organizations. "They're not doing as good a job as they could be doing," Gudgel said of doctors.

Gudgel added that women also must take the initiative and request testing. "If we can get women to understand how common this infection is and how silent it is ... they will hopefully say, 'I'm a young sexually active woman. I better ask my doctors to test me.'"

The number of reported cases of syphilis in Washington also increased, from 70 in 2002 to 82 in 2003.

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