Contemporary Strategies for Detecting Chlamydial Infection in Women

Chlamydia trachomatis infections are the most common bacterial cause of sexually transmitted disease in the US. In women, these infections often result in such serious reproductive tract complications as pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, and ectopic pregnancy, and an infected woman can pass the infection to her newborn during delivery. The pervasiveness of this often asymptomatic disease necessitates that health care providers actively look for C trachomatis infection, especially in young women. The diagnosis of chlamydial infections has historically been difficult, but newer chlamydia diagnostic tests have become clinically available in the past decade.