Summary: Chlamydia is the most commonly reported bacterial disease in the U.S., and half of the 1.8 million cases reported in 2019 were in youth. A recent publication by Kenisha Campbell, MD, MPH, and Sarah Wood, MD, MSHP, adolescent medicine physicians at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, showed providers are much more likely to screen Black adolescent females for chlamydia than white females. In a review of their study, the two doctors discuss how to address biases as individual providers and as practices or systems, and: a review of chlamydia screening guidelines, prevalence of asymptomatic cases, and effects of untreated infections; the recently modified CDC treatment guidelines, with doxycycline now preferred; when to still consider using azithromycin; when to refer to adolescent medicine; and more.
