How many people have been affected by chlamydia?
I am about as angry as I can ever recall being. I have just learned some new things about chlamydia, primarily that it is not at all true that you can only get it from sexual contact. After some discussion and a little research I find that you can get it from dogs, cats and many other animals – the same chlamydia that humans get. There has been some publicity about the fact that many young, even prepubescent girl are getting it, it is increasing rapidly. Many of these girls have never had any form of sexual contact – but do have constant access to pets that have the disease. Fifty percent of household dogs have chlamydia and thirty percent of cats. Many animals have it, in Australia it is threatening to wipe out the iconic Koalas.
I once dumped a guy for cheating on me after I tested positive for it and was absolutely assured that I had acquired it through a sexual contact. He denied ever cheating. It was easy to get rid of, but the idea disgusted me and I blamed him as I was told there was no other way I could have got it. I had several dogs and cats who used to crawl all over me and have since discovered that two of them have chlamydia. I know of several relationships destroyed because the woman though her partner must have been cheating.
Why are they still claiming that it is an STD when other veterinary sources warn of the risk of contracting it from dogs and cats? You need to use very high hygiene standards if your pet has chlamydia, and many do. The only real sign is conjunctivitis, gunk around the eyes at times.
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Pets are a vector for chlamydia, ok. What do statistics reveal as to the chances of one, who is regularly in contact with domestic pets, contracting the disease?
This is the first I heard of this, though I don’t know anyone who has experienced the clap, other than O.D.B; however, he doesn’t really count, since I don’t know him in real life.
@peedub I don’t know anyone who has experienced the clap
The clap is Gonorrhea not Chlamydia. Chlamydia is mostly a girl thing, guys get it, but it really only does damage to girls. I am surprised that anyone is still classifying it as an STD, there was a lot of publicity last year after so many virgins were testing positive for it. The fact that you can get orally as well vaginally and that you can get it from common pets was cause for a “Wash you hands” effort among schoolkids. I saw a warning only a couple of weeks ago at a petting zoo with Koalas.
Whoops! Either one. Why in the eff is gonorrhea called ‘the clap?’ It should be called The Gonz or something. Chlamydia should be called The Clam Dinger.
My doctor told my daughter that it is a bacterial infection, and in adults it is most commonly spread by sexual contact. Men pass it along, but do not get symptoms. They do need to be treated as well if their partner develops it.
In children, Chlamydia can develop from improper bathroom habits, girls wiping back to front after having a bowel movement. Bacteria from fecal matter can cause infection.
I was told this before, but I can’t find any site to back it up…but it was that every woman has Chlamydia in their body and something sets it off…didn’t really make sense to me. Not like it’s dormant, but just that we all have it or something and certain things or coming in contact with certain sexual partners makes it acute.
I dunno. I can’t think of anyone that has had it, no partners of mine have ever had it and neither have I. None of my close friends have ever confided about it either.
That does sound infuriating! I’d feel so responsible and outraged at the error, and want to call the ex and the people who gave the wrong info.
I’ve only heard of the clap in bad humor.
I wonder now what the symptoms are and how to avoid getting it from dogs, and how to avoid dogs getting it!
@Girl_Powered I just found this thread and wanted to pass along what I’ve been able to figure out about chlamydia in pets. Since I work in this field, I was surprised to read this and wondered why I hadn’t heard about it from the CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who generally do an excellent job issuing up to date and accurate information about transmission, diagnosis and treatment of STDs as part of their overall mission. I went to their website and reviewed their current content on chlamydia and didn’t find anything I didn’t already know.
Then I did a search on their site for “chlamydia animals” and came up with this – it’s a report from 1998 on parrot fever, caused by Chlamydia psittaci. The human STD is caused by Chlamydia trachomatis. When I googled “chlamydia pets” I came up with some articles that specified that cats could be infected with chlamydia psittaci, causing eye and lung infections. Some of the websites just said “chlamydia”, not specifying what strain, which is quite misleading.
The koalas with chlamydia seem to have other strains altogether, although some of the complications it causes for their species are similar to human ones. From an Australian scientist working on a vaccine for the koalas “Two types of Chlamydia are found in koalas, C. pneumoniae and C. pecorum. Chlamydia infection can manifest as upper respiratory disease, Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) also called urogenital disease or conjunctivitis. It isn’t clear which type of Chlamydia is responsible for the STD form, which causes infertility in females.”
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