But a new Johns Hopkins study finds that a startling number of young female recruits are infected with genital chlamydia at the time that they sign up. Over a one year period, researchers gave urine tests to more than 13-thousand young women who joined the Army. Nearly ten per cent tested positive for chlamydia, an infection that left untreated can result in infertility and pelvic inflammatory disease. The good news is chlamydia is easy to treat.
Women are interested in their own health.
They do want to protect their fertility. And since it is an asymptomatic disease, the only way to know if you have the infection is to screen for it. The Army currently does not screen new female recruits for the chlamydia infection. Dr. Gaydos thinks it may want to reconsider that policy in light of what researchers found. At the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, I'm Tom Haederle reporting.