Chlamydia Testing Singapore | HIV PEP
Chlamydia Testing in Singapore: Chlamydia in Singapore is a common and curable sexually transmitted disease (STD). If left untreated, it can lead to pregnancy-related complications in women.
Diagnosis of chlamydia
Screening for chlamydia infection is relatively simple. To diagnose chlamydia, a doctor may collect a urine sample and/or a vaginal or urethral swab to test for chlamydia.
The collection process for the swab test may be somewhat uncomfortable, but is usually not painful. If you are a woman, the doctor will take a swab of discharge from the cervix for culture or antigen testing for chlamydia. The sample collection procedure is similar to a Pap smear test. If you are a man, your healthcare provider inserts a thin swab into the end of your penis to obtain a urethral swab sample. To collect a urine sample, you need to void out the first urine into the toilet, and collect the mid-stream urine in the sample container.
The most accurate diagnosis of chlamydia is based on identification of the disease-causing organism in a culture test. For this test, the swab is incubated in a laboratory to see whether the Chlamydia bacteria grow; these tests are time-consuming, with two to three days usually required for results to become available. For faster results, your doctor may order advanced tests based on identifying bacterial genetic material, which are called nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT). These tests are rapid; you can get the results within a few hours.
Once you are treated for chlamydia, you should get retested after three months to make sure you are cured.