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Can children get chlamydia


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Chlamydia is the most commonly reported sexually transmitted infection (STI). Caused by Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria, it occurs at high rates in sexually active teenagers. A genital Chlamydia infection can be spread between sexual partners during vaginal, oral, or anal sexual contact. An infected mother can pass it on to her newborn child. In fact, about 50% of infants delivered vaginally to infected mothers get chlamydia. A smaller number delivered by cesarean birth also get the disease.

 

If present beyond the newborn period in a child who has not yet reached puberty, a chlamydial infection may be a sign of sexual abuse.

Signs and Symptoms

Chlamydial infection is often called a “silent disease” because so many infected people have no symptoms. This is the case with about three fourths of infected females and about half of infected males. As a result, many infections go unrecognized.

When symptoms are present, females may have:

  • An abnormal vaginal discharge
  • A burning sensation during urination
  • Lower abdominal pain
  • Low back pain
  • Fever
  • Nausea
  • Bleeding between periods
  • Painful sexual intercourse

Males may have:

  • An abnormal discharge from the penis
  • Itching or burning around the tip of the penis
  • A burning sensation while urinating
  • Tenderness or pain of the testicles

Males and females may develop Reiter syndrome with arthritis, burning during urination, and inflammation with redness of the eyes. When newborns get a chlamydial infection from their mothers, they may develop eye inflammation (conjunctivitis) with redness, swelling, and discharge, with or without pneumonia. The pneumonia often causes cough and rapid breathing.

If illness is present, it typically begins after an incubation period of 1 to 3 weeks. Pneumonia may occur up to several months after birth in newborns.

What You Can Do

Any sexually active male or female can be infected with C trachomatis. Make sure your teenaged son or daughter knows about the risks of a sexually active lifestyle and how to practice safe sex.

When To Call Your Pediatrician

Call your pediatrician if your child complains of symptoms listed here. If your newborn has an eye discharge or cough, you should call your pediatrician.

How Is the Diagnosis Made?

Your doctor can collect a specimen (eg, of pus) from the cervix or penis and have it tested in the laboratory for evidence of chlamydial infection. A urine sample can also be tested.

If a chlamydial infection is diagnosed in a sexually active teenager, he should be tested for other STIs, including syphilis, HIV, gonorrhea, and hepatitis B. Gonorrhea and chlamydial infection often occur together. His sexual partner(s) should also be notified and tested.

Treatment

To treat chlamydia, your pediatrician will prescribe antibiotics such as oral doxycycline or azithromycin.

A child with chlamydial pneumonia or conjunctivitis should be treated with oral medications like erythromycin. Topical treatment of the eye infection, such as with eyedrops, is ineffective and unnecessary.

What Is the Prognosis?

Prompt treatment should resolve a chlamydial infection and prevent complications. If the infection is not treated, serious complications can develop, including pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) which is an infection of the uterus, fallopian tubes, or ovaries in girls and women that can lead to chronic pelvic pain, infertility, and ectopic pregnancies (pregnancy outside the uterus). A person with a chlamydial infection is also more likely to contract an HIV infection. Complications are less common in teenaged boys and men, but may include inflammation of the epididymis (the coiled tube that runs along the back of the testicles).

Prevention

Your teenager can avoid getting chlamydia by practicing safe sex. If your teenaged daughter is sexually active, she should be screened or tested for a C trachomatis infection, even if she doesn’t have symptoms.

Last Updated
11/21/2015
Source
Adapted from Immunizations and Infectious Diseases: An Informed Parents Guide (Copyright © 2006 American Academy of Pediatrics) and updated 2011

The information contained on this Web site should not be used as a substitute for the medical care and advice of your pediatrician. There may be variations in treatment that your pediatrician may recommend based on individual facts and circumstances.

Pediatric and Adolescent Chlamydia

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Pediatric and adolescent chlamydia is a common sexually transmitted infection (STI) that impacts both males and females. If left untreated, it can cause permanent damage to a woman’s reproductive system, and difficulty getting pregnant later in life.

What is Pediatric and Adolescent Chlamydia?

Chlamydia is a commonly occurring STI that can be difficult to diagnose. Not everyone develops symptoms, but chlamydia can still be passed with or without obvious warning signs. If left untreated, females can develop pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), which can damage the reproductive system and cause infertility.

What are the signs and symptoms of Pediatric and Adolescent Chlamydia?

Most people with chlamydia will not experience symptoms. If symptoms are present, they will appear one to three weeks after a patient is exposed. Symptoms can include:

  • Vaginal discharge (more than normal)
  • Vaginal Bleeding / unusually heavy and long periods
  • Burning during urination
  • Lower abdomen pain (typically only with females) or pain during intercourse

How is Pediatric and Adolescent Chlamydia diagnosed?

Chlamydia is diagnosed with testing done in your health care provider’s office.  Sometime doctors can get the information they need for the test from your urine, while others they may have to do a vaginal swab (Q tip). 

What are the causes of Pediatric and Adolescent Chlamydia?

Chlamydia is an infection caused by the bacteria Chlamydia trachomatis that is found in the cervix (the passage forming the lower part of the uterus), throat, urethra (tube that carries urine from the bladder), vagina and rectum.

Risk factors

There are several risk factors that will increase the chance of chlamydia:

  • Being sexually active and not using condoms– All persons that are sexually active have a greater risk of contracting chlamydia. Being sexually active and not using condoms increases that risk.  Further, the more sexual partners you have, the more chances you have to get chlamydia. Being with a partner that has had multiple partners also increases your risk.
  • Weakened immune system – Immune systems can be weakened by HIV/AIDS, immune-suppressing medications (organ transplants) or other reasons can increase being susceptible to getting chlamydia if exposed.
  • Having a mother with chlamydia – It is possible for a mother to infect her child during vaginal childbirth.

How is Pediatric and Adolescent Chlamydia treated?

Chlamydia is treated with antibiotics that your health care provider can prescribe for you.  It is important that the partner(s) of the person infected also get treated with antibiotics. 

 

Pediatric and Adolescent Chlamydia Doctors and Providers

  • M. Brett Cooper, MD Adolescent Medicine Specialist

  • Nirupama De Silva, MD Pediatric Gynecologist

  • Jenny Francis, MD Adolescent Medicine Specialist

  • Jason Jarin, MD Pediatric Gynecologist

Chlamydia - KVD №2

What is chlamydia?

Chlamydia is a common sexually transmitted infection (STI). The disease is caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis (Chlamydia trachomatis), which affects the female genital area and is the cause of non-gonococcal urethritis in men. Manifestations of chlamydia are usually minor or absent, but serious complications develop. Complications can cause irreparable damage to the body, including infertility - all this proceeds very secretly.

Chlamydia also causes penile discharge in infected men.

Chlamydia transmission routes

Chlamydia can be transmitted through:

  • vaginal or anal contact with an infected partner;
  • less common with oral sex;
  • use of sex toys with an infected partner;
  • infection of a newborn during childbirth from a sick mother.

Absolutely all sexually active people can get chlamydia. The greater the number of sexual partners, the greater the risk of infection. The risk of infection is especially high in girls, because their cervix is ​​not fully formed. About 75% of new cases occur in women under 25 years of age. By the age of 30, approximately 50% of sexually active women have had chlamydia. In sexually active men, the risk of infection is highest between the ages of 20 and 24.

You cannot get chlamydia through kisses, hugs, dishes, baths, towels.

Manifestations of chlamydia

Chlamydia is very secretive. About 75% of infected women and 50% of infected men are asymptomatic. If manifestations of the disease develop, then this occurs approximately 1 to 3 weeks after infection.

In women, chlamydia first affects the cervix and urethra (urinary canal).

Manifestations:

  • unusual vaginal discharge;
  • pain or discomfort when urinating;

If the infection penetrates to the appendages, manifestations are possible:

  • pain in the lower abdomen;
  • pain in the lumbar region;
  • nausea;
  • slight increase in temperature;
  • pain during intercourse or bleeding after it;
  • bleeding between periods.

Symptoms in men:

  • clear or cloudy discharge from the penis;
  • pain or discomfort when urinating;
  • there may be burning and itching in the area of ​​the outlet of the urethra;
  • rarely pain and/or swelling of the testicles.

Men or women who have anal sex with an infected partner can infect the rectum, resulting in inflammation, pain, discharge, or bleeding from the rectum.

Chlamydia can cause sore throat (pharyngitis) in men and women who have oral contact with an infected partner.

What complications can develop if chlamydia is not treated?

If the disease is not treated, serious short-term and persistent complications develop. Like the disease itself, complications often occur insidiously.

In women with untreated chlamydia, infection can spread from the urethra to the fallopian tubes (the tubes that carry the egg from the ovaries to the uterus) - this causes (in 40% of cases) the development of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). PID causes permanent damage to the fallopian tubes, uterus, and surrounding tissues. Chronic pelvic pain, infertility and ectopic pregnancy are the result of PID.

Women with chlamydia are more susceptible to HIV infection, the risk increases by almost 5 times.

To prevent serious consequences of chlamydia, annual chlamydia screening is required for all sexually active women 25 years of age and younger. An annual examination is necessary for women over 25 who are at risk (new sexual partner, multiple sexual partners). All pregnant women should be screened for chlamydia.

Complications of chlamydia are rare in men. The infection sometimes extends to the epididymis and causes pain, fever, and, rarely, male infertility (sterility).

Rarely, chlamydial infection can cause inflammation of the joints in combination with skin lesions, inflammation of the eyes and urinary tract - this is the so-called Reiter's syndrome.

The effect of chlamydia on a pregnant woman and her child

Chlamydia in pregnant women increases the risk of miscarriage, premature detachment of the placenta. Newborns from infected mothers can get eye and lung infections. A lung infection (pneumonia) can be fatal to a newborn.

Diagnosis of chlamydia

Diagnosis includes observation of the patient's clinical symptoms, testing for chlamydia smears from the cervix, scraping from the urinary canal, the first morning urine. Most often, the study is carried out by PCR (polymerase chain reaction). Swabs and scrapings may cause minor discomfort.

In addition, a blood test by ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) for the presence of immunity to chlamydia is carried out, this auxiliary test often helps to establish an accurate diagnosis.

Treatment of chlamydia

Treatment of chlamydia is with oral antibiotics. To prevent re-infection, all sexual partners must be found, examined and treated. Patients with chlamydia should refrain from unprotected sex during treatment, otherwise it is possible to re-infect the sexual partner. Unfortunately, after successful treatment, re-infection with chlamydia is possible, since a strong immunity to this microorganism does not develop. Repeated infection of women with chlamydia leads to a significant increase in the risk of serious complications, including infertility. A re-examination is carried out 4 weeks after treatment.

Prevention of chlamydia

The best way to prevent sexually transmitted infections is through long-term sexual contact with one healthy sexual partner. Latex male condoms, when used correctly, drastically reduce the risk of transmission.

Annual chlamydia screening required for all sexually active women 25 years of age and younger. An annual examination is also necessary for women over 25 who are at risk (new sexual partner, multiple sexual partners). All pregnant women should be screened for chlamydia.

Any manifestations, such as pain or discomfort when urinating, unusual rash, discharge are a signal to stop sexual intercourse and immediately examine in a specialized clinic - KVD. If the patient is found to have chlamydia (or any other STI), he must inform his sexual partners so that they also undergo a full examination and appropriate treatment. This will reduce the risk of developing serious complications and prevent the possibility of re-infection.

Patients with chlamydia should refrain from unprotected sex during treatment, otherwise the sexual partner may be re-infected.

Chlamydia | MTsRZ.

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Sexually transmitted infections are not only unpleasant, but also quite dangerous. One of the most common of these is chlamydia. According to medical research, it is precisely this that is difficult to diagnose, therefore it is found when patients come to see a doctor for various reasons or for a preventive examination.

The causative agent of urogenital chlamydia is Chlamydia trachomatis. There are also Chlamydiapheumonia (causes pneumonia), Chlamydiapsittaci (causes chlamydia in animals and birds).

Once in the human body, chlamydia begin to actively multiply in the mucosa and after 10 hours they invade the cells and destroy them. Reproduction of chlamydia occurs by division, the microorganism has its own DNA and RNA. As a result, the cells of the human mucosa die. Chlamydia can travel through the lymphatic and blood vessels. This explains the infection of the joints, pharynx and other organs located at a distance from the reproductive system and abdominal cavity.

The main route of infection is sexual. Spermatozoa are carriers of chlamydia. Children can become infected with chlamydia at birth from a sick mother, as well as in utero during pregnancy (congenital blindness develops). Chlamydia may be accompanied by other urogenital infections, such as: trichomoniasis, mycoplasmosis, ureaplasmosis, candidiasis, gonorrhea, gardnerellosis (bacterial vaginosis), streptococci, staphylococci, etc.

Chlamydia lives inside a living cell, like a virus, but its structure is more like a bacterium. In chlamydia, two stages of the life cycle are known - in the first it can exist outside the cell, and in the second stage it already lives in the cell, becoming an absolute cellular parasite.

The causes of chlamydia are: