How Often Should Young Women Be Screened for Chlamydia trachomatis in a Moderate-Prevalence Area?
JK Chaw, CK Kent, JD Klausner STD Prevention and Control Services, San Francisco Department of Public Health, San Francisco, CA Background: A recently published article from Baltimore, a high-prevalence chlamydia area, found the median time to first and repeat infection among women <25 years to be 7.0 and 7.6 months, respectively. The incidence rate in Baltimore among these young women was 20.3 cases/1,000 persons per month. The authors recommended chlamydia screening twice yearly for all sexually active women <25 years. Objective: To assess if biannual chlamydia screening of young women is appropriate in a moderate prevalence area. Methods: Between April 1998 and December 2000, 3,856 women aged 12–60 years had at least two visits more than 30 days apart at six San Francisco sentinel sites: two detention facilities (41% of data), the municipal STD clinic (38%), a teen clinic (6%), and two family planning clinics (15%). During 9,977 clinic visits, women were tested for chlamydia by nucl
