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Response from Men's Sexual Health:

Hi, thanks for getting in touch with your question. As your partner was being treated for a chest infection, the antibiotics he received were specific to treat that illness. When the medicine he was using wasn’t working, another one was tried, possibly before the first course of treatment was finished. Some antibiotics are used to treat a number of infections, so, might clear up a different infection to the diagnosed one being treated. The kind of treatment prescribed to treat Chlamydia will vary, depending on who is giving the medication, allergies, and other variables, and the number of days you take the antibiotics will depend on the illness and the type of antibiotic medicine. The most common antibiotics used to treat Chlamydia are azithromycin, which comes in a single dose, or doxycycline, sometimes called vibramycin, which is taken once or twice a day for at least one week, possibly two. Azithromycin and doxycycline cure chlamydia in up to 95 out of 100 cases. Some people may not be able to take these medicines but are able to take a different one. There can be many variables with these treatments. Also, even if your partner had the correct antibiotic and dosage for treating Chlamydia, if he didn’t abstain from sexual activity,during the treatment and for a week after, he risks recurrence of the infection. So, in summary, though it seems logical to think that if he had the type of antibiotics sometimes used to treat Chlamydia, that he should not have carried the infection since treatment for his chest infection, it is entirely possible that the Chlamydia could have survived through his 4 antibiotic treatments. I hope this helps clarify things for you. Please get back to us if we can help or if you have any further concerns.

Answered by team member Mara
30th June 2010