Chlamydia treatment

[bencollins07]

I was recently diagnosed with anal chlamydia, and was issued a single dose of azithromycin. I read the following on medscape.com:
Results: 11 patients (26.2%) had a positive TOC following treatment with stat azithromycin. The risk of re-infection was excluded in two, identifying nine of the 11 (81.8%) as treatment failures. Two patients had a positive TOC following treatment with 1 week of doxycycline, both were found to have a risk of re-infection. There was a significantly higher treatment failure rate in patients receiving azithromycin (p=0.0025).

The site claims that a regimen of one week of doxycycline has a success rate of 98.8%.

Should I go back to the clinic and ask them for the doxycycline treatment? Or is the information on medscape unreliable?

[bencollins07]

Thanks for your help, although I highly doubt I will not be having sex for a month - condoms are not short in supply =P I will certainly be retesting as per your recommendation though.

[HowardH]

This is the latest of a handful of studies in recent years questioning the efficacy of azithromycin against rectal chlamydia. Single-dose AZM remains a routine recommendation, but some STD specialists indeed have more confidence in doxycycline. Probably the best approach is for you to have another rectal swab NAAT test, at least a month after treatment (and have no receptive anal sex until then); but some experts might go along with re-treatment with doxy. It would be reasonable for you to contact the clinic and ask them about both these options.