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Public health departments urge STD testing to prevent infection

Category: Chlamydia

As a growing number of young people find out from STD testing that they have an infection, public health departments across the country are working to raise awareness of the problem and seek treatment if they believe they might be infected.

The Connecticut Department of Public health recently ran a campaign to encourage young people to get STD tests. Health officials said that testing is a vital part of their efforts to stamp out infections in the state.

Heidi Jenkins, department spokesperson, told the Public News Service of Connecticut that the symptoms of these diseases may not be the worst to deal with, but their consequences can be serious.

"The complications that can happen from this, for women in particular, are that the infection travels into the reproductive organs, and a woman could become sterile from either gonorrhea or Chlamydia," she told the news source.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that there are more than 1 million people in the U.S. infected with Chlamydia.