With all due respect to the  well meaning people who have chimed in on this thread about paying for sex or "you get what you pay for,  or "it cost you more than money" or "this is why I see bodyrub girls LOL instead of going to Asian parlors" (it's wide spread in the WASP civie population or in all ethnic groups civie or hobby population not particularly endemic to Asians at all),  or that sex is cheap in Thailand,and looking at this thread, it's not that everyone can pay for sex, it's that asymptomatic Chlamydia is so wide spread in the US and world population and that less than half of the population in the US, and much less than that abroad gets tested and the large numbers of people who are asymptomatic the medical facts on Chlamydia Trachomatis are signficantly different in some respect as to "you get what you pay for" and "lower class or lower cost women" as has been inferred.  Chlamydia is widespread, and asymptomatic Chalmydia is just as prevelant on the upper east side of Manhatten (or name an expensiove neighborhood in a city) as it is on the  lower east side. Chlamydia is the most commonly transmitted STD, it's the most commonly reported STD in the U.S., and it's significantly underreported and under discovered.

Nationally, the annual screening rate increased from 25.3% in 2000 to 43.6% in 2006, then decreased slightly to 41.6% in 2007, and less abroad.

Chlamydia Trachomatis conjunctivitis (eye infection) can just as easily be caused by sexual  transmission as it can from direct hand to eye contact, contrary to the OP's perception of how he might have gotten it. I reported the first case known in the world of Chlamydia Trachomatis Endocarditis in the cardiology literature in a patient who was pregnant.  It infected her aortic and mitral  valves causing a ring abcess, then perforated the pericardium (the protective covering around the heart, and bled into her pericardium causing a cardiac tamponade, constricting her ventricles and causing congestive heart failure, and ultimately death.

Oral sex, giving or receiving can transmit Chlamydia, particularly when it is asymptomatic in the throats or nasopharynx of infected individuals.

Epidemiologic studies and the medical literature including the infectious disease literature estimate that Chlamydia is asymptomatic in 75% of women and 50% of men. In some studies in the infectious disease literature women are asymptomatic 90% of the time.  It doesn't just go away without treatment, so these individuals can spread it for years and years if untreated. About 30% of patients both sexes who have Chlamydia have concomiitant  GC or Gonnorrhea. Gonorrhea is predominantly asymptomatic in men or women with a painful discharge, sometimes yellowish sometimes not.

There are about 2.8 million cases of Chlamydia in all strata of the socioeconomic population in the U.S., and commonly I see physicians fail to treat their patient's partner for Chlamydia.  It is strongly recommended if you Dx Chlamydia, that you insist that the patient's partner come in for treatment.  That's much easier of course in a monogomous civie relationship, and can be impossible or even notfification of the partner or partners can be impossible or difficult in the hobby population or in the civie population not having monogomous sex obviously.

The CDC recommends testing once a year, not once a week, and in the hobby twice a year if you're asymptomatic makes sense.  If you have symptoms of a discharge from the penis or the cervix, abdominal lower quadrant pain, cervical pain, testicular epididymal area pain, pain or itching near the opening of the penis, rectal pain, rectal discharge or rectal bleeding,   then you should be seen and tested for the cause.  Obviously painless rectal bleeding can more commonly occur from hemorrhoids or an upper GI source or even a lower GI source.  Symptoms usually occur when they occur 1-3 weeks after exposure.

The most prevelant threats are spreading between  men and women, as well as men and men and women and women, and  sterility for women and it's the most common cause of sterility along with other forms of PID, and it causes infection in the tubes or ovaries, or tissue surrounding both of these that then spreads to the tubes or ovaries that can lead to sterility about 15% of cases.  Chlamydia can cause epididymitis in men, and usually it is easily diagnosed by touching the epidydimis although it's not the only bacteria that can do this.

Of course Chalmydia in the cervix can migrate up to the tubes and then to the ovaries. It's underreported because it's predominantly asymptomatic, and because of that thousands of individuals if not ten thousands of individuals who have it in the US don't test for it.

It would not make medical or economic sense to test for Chlamydia once a week as the OP suggests.  Additionally, many physicians treat discharges in both sexes empirically, and don't always test for Chlamydia and other organisms although they should.

http://www.cdc.gov/std/chlamydia/stdfact-chlamydia.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/std/treatment/2010/chlamydial-infections.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/std/chlamydia/

As to the eye, there are 3 types of Chlamydia and several subtypes Chlamydia Trachomatis or "trachoma" is the most common. It's the  most common STD and the leading cause of PID or pelvic inflammatory disease.  It is significantly underdiagonsed in the world and the US, because most of the time, it's asymptomatic.  I'm not sure how the OP actually got his eye infection, because you don't have to have direct contact with any type of Chlamydia into the eye area to get a Chlamydial infection in any organ where it can locate in your body. It can be transmitted via vaginal, anal or oral sex.  I understand the OP practiced "safe sex", meaning he used a condom, but that doesn't guarantee he couldn't have contracted Chalmydia from other means, and we don't know for certain that the hobby of the OP was the source of his Chlamydial eye infection.

Civies certainly carry and transmit Chlamydia, and in big numbers, and because of the simple numbers in the population spread it more than it is spread in the hobby.

My point there is that you more likely could have contracted Chlamydia through some other route than hand to eye, and from some other sexual encounter than the hobby in Thialand or the hobby any where else.

Individuals who have had Chlamyida and been treated are more prone to have it again, because of reinfection, not treatment failure.

From CDC Treatment  Recommendations:
http://www.cdc.gov/std/treatment/2010/chlamydial-infections.htm

"Chlamydia-infected women and men should be retested approximately 3 months after treatment, regardless of whether they believe that their sex partners were treated. If retesting at 3 months is not possible, clinicians should retest whenever persons next present for medical care in the 12 months following initial treatment.

Management of Sex Partners
Patients should be instructed to refer their sex partners for evaluation, testing, and treatment if they had sexual contact with the patient during the 60 days preceding onset of the patient’s symptoms or chlamydia diagnosis. Although the exposure intervals defined for the identification of at-risk sex partners are based on limited evaluation, the most recent sex partner should be evaluated and treated, even if the time of the last sexual contact was >60 days before symptom onset or diagnosis"


It can be transmitted via oral sex as well. It can be transmitted from man to man as well, and woman to woman.  As the CDC  article says, asymptomatic Chlamydia is very prevelant in teen aged girls who are sexually active because they seem to be more susceptible to infection, although all the reasons for this are still not known.

Chlamydia is wide spread asymptomatic in the throats/nasopharynx of men and women, and transmitted by oral sex with an infected partner.






-- Modified on 8/8/2012 9:58:00 PM