Patient Counseling and Education

Patient counseling and education should cover the nature of the disease, transmission issues, and risk reduction.

Nature of the Disease

Chlamydia is commonly asymptomatic in both men and women. In women, there is an increased risk of upper reproductive tract damage with re-infection.

Transmission Issues

• Effective treatment of chlamydia may reduce HIV transmission and susceptibility.
• Patients and their sex partners should abstain from sexual intercourse until they and their sex partners have completed treatment.  Abstinence should be continued until 7 days after a single-dose regimen or after completion of a 7-day regimen.
• Timely treatment of sex partners is essential for decreasing the risk for reinfecting the patient.

Risk Reduction

The clinician should:

• Assess the patient's behavior-change potential.
• Develop individualized risk-reduction plans with the patient.
• Discuss prevention strategies such as abstinence, monogamy with an uninfected partner, condoms, limiting number of sex partners. Latex condoms, when used consistently and correctly, can reduce the risk of transmission of chlamydia.

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