Nongonococcal urethritis.

Nongonococcal urethritis (NGU) and its counterparts in women are the most common sexually transmitted disease syndromes in the United States and Western Europe. Chlamydia trachomatis causes 40 to 50 percent of the cases of NGU and is a major cause of mucopurulent cervicitis and urethral infection in women, epididymitis in young men, pelvic inflammatory disease, acute perihepatitis, and neonatal conjunctivitis and pneumonia. Chlamydial infection also has been linked with Reiter's syndrome, infertility, cervical dysplasia, stillbirth, postpartum endometritis, and other syndromes. Tetracycline HCl is the treatment of choice for NGU and related syndromes, and for the sexual partners of infected patients.