by JENNY HOPE, Daily Mail
Shocking new figures reveal that nearly one in 10 young women has a sexual infection which can ruin their fertility.
A survey shows the highest recorded levels of chlamydia in sexually active women aged 16 to 25 - and most of the victims have no idea they have been infected.
Chlamydia, which is passed on through sex, is dubbed the 'silent disease' because it rarely produces symptoms.
But it can trigger pelvic inflammatory infection which may make women infertile or more likely to have a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy. Men are also victims of the disease but the lack of symptoms means they usually fail to get it treated and pass it on to sexual partners.
When chlamydia is diagnosed it can be treated with antibiotics. Figures released today by the Public Health Laboratory Service show nine per cent of sexually active women under 25 have chlamydia infection.
The level is one-third higher than previous estimates and tallies with rises in a range of sexually transmitted diseases.
New cases of chlamydia for England and Wales increased from 53,221 in 1999 to 62,565 last year, an 18 per cent rise.
Gonorrhoea in England and Wales is also at its highest level for over a decade - increasing by 27 per cent last year alone - while syphilis is re-emerging with a 55 per cent rise in cases last year.
The latest figures come from a year-long pilot study of screening young women in two health authorities - Portsmouth and the Wirral - with the aim of establishing a nationwide routine testing programme.
A urine test was offered to women aged between 16 and 25 years attending their GP surgery, family planning clinic or hospital clinic for sexually transmitted diseases.
Dr Jeanne Pimenta, the study coordinator who will be presenting the findings today at the PHLS annual scientific conference in Warwick, said the results showed the potential benefits of nationwide screening.
The Government has already announced a TV and newspaper advertising campaign next year warning of the dangers of sexually transmitted infections, Aids and unwanted pregnancies.
There is concern about an epidemic of promiscuity and that young people are ignoring safer sex messages advising use of barrier contraception such as condoms to prevent infection.
Experts believe their chief concern is avoiding pregnancy, not disease.
Dr Mike Catchpole, head of the PHLS chlamydia programme, said the study results showed young women wanted to have chlamydia testing and that GPs were keen to offer it.
Dr Catchpole said the new urine test enabled screening to be carried out at more convenient times for women, he added. Previously it had to be done at the same time as a cervical smear test.
The new test was also more accurate, giving at least 90 per cent accuracy rates, he said. This might explain why the study showed the highest ever rates of the disease because more infections had been missed using less accurate tests.
Dr Catchpole said it was vital to test women for the infection because untreated it could remain active in the body for around 14 months, during which time it can cause pelvic inflammatory disease and irrevocably damage the reproductive system.
This can lead to an ectopic preg-nancy - where the fertilised egg lodges outside the womb - which is the leading cause of death during the first three months of pregnancy.
Under the Government's sexual health strategy, women attending family planning clinics and cervical smear appointments will be offered screening for chlamydia.
But Dr Catchpole said cervical smear appointments were given only to women aged 20 and over - which missed out on teenage girls. 'It is important GPs are involved so they can offer tests to girls aged 16 to 19,' he added.
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