chlamydia

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finalized its endorsement of taking doxycycline after unprotected sex as a way to prevent chlamydia, gonorrhea or syphilis infections.

The surge has been driven largely by the spread of chlamydia, a devastating bacterial infection.

New cases of chlamydia and early syphilis — but not gonorrhea — dropped over the course of about a year.

Nearly three-quarters of councils have seen a rise in rates of syphilis cases, and chlamydia infections are up in more than a third of areas.

The work, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, introduces a potential game-changer in the fight against intracellular pathogens responsible for causing devastating infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, malaria and chlamydia.