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Extra medications for sex partners one approach in public health struggle to curb Chlamydia

Innovative strategies are raising legal and ethical questions.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, amednews staff. April 9, 2001.

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A San Francisco health plan is working out an arrangement that would allow its physicians to write prescriptions, paid for by the plan, for the anonymous partners of patients diagnosed with chlamydiosis.

This unorthodox experiment is one of several strategies being advanced in locations across the country. The examples sometimes push the envelope in terms of accepted medical practice and screening policies. The underlying goal, however, is to rein in this sexually transmitted disease, which has become the most commonly reported infectious disease in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's report, "Tracking the Hidden Epidemics: Trends in STDs in the United States, 2000."

Most experts attribute the high numbers to increased rates of screening and improvements in screening technology. However, they also maintain that the statistics reflect the sheer difficulty involved in controlling an infection that usually has no symptoms, is highly contagious and primarily affects adolescents and young adults.

There are other challenges in play.

Treatment is simple and inexpensive, with many patients cured after a single dose of antibiotics. The CDC estimates that every dollar spent on screening and treatment saves $12 that would be spent in treating complications down the road.

But at the same time, Chlamydia infection is so prevalent that contact tracing by public health departments to find infections and provide necessary treatment is financially and logistically impossible. [...]