What Can Cause a Chlamydial Infection?
Like a lot of bacteria and viruses, the culprit that causes Chlamydia is complicated – the official name is bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. The abrupt answer is that chlamydia is contracted through sexual intercourse. Chlamydia is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and is spread by vaginal, anal and sometimes oral sex with an infected person. Since Chlamydia often produces no symptoms in females, pregnant women need to be especially careful about getting infected because a pregnant woman with a Chlamydial infection can also spread the infection to her newborn during a vaginal delivery. Chlamydia can be spread from person to person whether or not symptoms are present. The risk of contracting chlamydia is increased when a person has multiple sexual partners, having sex with a high-risk partner (someone who has sex with multiple partners), engaging in unprotected sex and being sexually active before age 18.
