CDC sounds doctor alert about rare STD

Lymphogranuloma venereum is tough to diagnose, easy to treat and making inroads here

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Feb. 28, 2005.

Loren Crown, MD, remembers the 33-year-old woman who appeared in his office in Covington, Tenn., complaining of a painful lump on her groin. But it was not a hernia, as first suspected. Instead, it turned out to be a rare case of infection with lymphogranuloma venereum, one of the more vicious members of the Chlamydia trachomatis family.

"There's no quick test, so it's difficult to diagnose," said Dr. Crown, a family physician and clinical professor of medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine. He published a report on this case in the July 1997 issue of Tennessee Medicine. "But I'd be happy to see another case, because it's easy to treat."

He could get the opportunity.

A series of outbreaks in Europe and a handful of confirmed cases in the United States has led Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials to alert physicians to be on the lookout for this sexually transmitted disease, report patients suspected of being infected to local health departments and submit specimens to the CDC's Chlamydia laboratory.

"LGV is present in the United States, and it's extremely important for physicians to be aware of that, to watch for symptoms and make sure patients are getting treated," said Catherine McLean, MD, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC's Division of STD Prevention and the agency's point person on the bacteria.

In the past year, European public health officials have noted dozens of cases among gay and bisexual men. U.S. officials have been keeping a watchful eye. One case reported in Houston in October 2004 was linked to travel to Paris. The more recently discovered cases -- including at least two in New York, three in San Francisco and one in Atlanta -- had no association with European travel. Many U.S. experts now believe it has found footing here.