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How long to chlamydia eradication ater 1g of Azithromycin

I recently had unprotected sex and got emperic treatment after i felt some pain on urination.  I took 1g of azithromycin and 400mg of suprax.  About 30hrs after treatment I had unprotected sex with another partner...like an idiot!!  I know that gonorrhea is almost always eradicted within 24hrs post treatment (http://jcm.asm.org/cgi/reprint/40/10/3596.pdf).  I was wondering how long it realy take to eradicate chlamydia.  I know the reccomendations are to wait 7days to engage in unprotected sex again, this is clearly overkill for gonorrhea but upon searching the literature i can not find how quickly chlamydia is eradicated!  The time to max concetration of azithromycin is about 4hrs so I was hoping this would be enough to knock the chlamydia down if in fact I do have it.

Thanks
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300980 tn?1194929400
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
As I suspect you can imagine, there are no studies to help us know precisely how long it takes for azithromycin to kill an active chlamydial infection.  You are correct that the drug begins to work very quickly and even if the chlamydia were still present and viable, the bacteria would be weakened (by the partial effect of the antibiotic) and therefore less likely to be transmitted.

In your case, odds that you transmitted infection are rather low.  I say this because:
1.  You do not mention testing, just symptoms.  If you were not tested, perhaps you had chlamydia but it is also likely that you did not.
2.  If you had chlamydia, your risk of transmission to a sexual partner is about 40% per exposure, if the chlamydia is "healthy"
3.  In your case, as mentioned above, if chlamydia were present, it would not have been healthy and therefore less effectively transmitted.


Having just said all of this, as you point out, having sex 24 hours after treatment like this, particularly without testing was a rather boneheaded thing to do.  The best thing you could do is disclose to your partner that you may have had an STD so that she can be tested.  To do otherwise jeopardizes her health.  EWH
Helpful - 1
300980 tn?1194929400
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Sorry, I cannot tell you what caused the change in your ejaculate that you noted.  This is not a describe response to chlamydial therapy and certainly did not represent clearance of dead bacteria from your body. Sorry I don't have an explanation.  EWH
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Avatar universal
Thank you for the quick response!  It was a total bonehead move!  I knew better.  I am of course going to inform the partner at risk!

I do have one more question...About 1-2 days after I received the emperic thearpy my ejaculate had changed texture to a thicker white, almost as if powder had been suspended in my semen.  Could this be dead bacteria being expelled and would GC/Chlam change the texture of my semen not in the presence of any other forms of discharge?

Thanks again for your help it is very much appreciated!
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