A student fee increase for chlamydia testing by the University Health Service will not be recommended this year.

Health Center Director Rosemary Lane said the center will not request a fee increase to test men and women for chlamydia, a prevalent venereal disease on campus.

Last year, the health services conducted a month of testing to determine if chlamydia was prevalent on NIU’s campus. “I don’t have the results for this year, but last year it (chlamydia) was prevalent on campus,” Lane said.

In 1986-87, an additional $2.04 per semester for full-time students was approved and added to the students’ health services fee. Rather than paying $34.20 per semester, full-time students had to pay $36.24 per semester.

Lane said that last fall the center began using a different testing system which will not require a fee increase for next year. The newer system does not have the same inaccuracies as the first test, she said.

The previous system inadequately tested 30.3 percent, or 108 female students out of 356, between Sept. 22, 1986 and Oct. 23, 1986. Lab errors or the specimen not having the right cells can account for the inaccuracies, Lane said.

The center has not encountered similar problems with the later system, Lane said.

Last year’s testing showed that of the 356 persons tested, 10.1 percent, or 36 students, were positive. Women tested positively 14.5 percent of the time and men tested positively 45.2 percent of the time, said Dana Mills, associate director of the health center.

He said men illustated a higher percentage because men were tested only if the center had reason to believe they had chlamydia.

“Female students having a full examination or having routine problems also will be tested for chlamydia,” Lane said.

“We (the center) have been treating students since we got the test, (and) I am certain in some specific cases students have been cured,” Lane said.

However, she said she does not know how much of a “dent” the testing has produced.

Most victims are not aware they are carrying the disease because its symptoms are similar to gonorrhea. Some symptoms males might notice are a mucus-like discharge and experiencing minor burning of the penis, Lane said.

“Eighty to 90 percent of women who have chlamydia experience no symptoms at all, those who do might have a vague burning sensation,” said Marcy Gubelman, a community health educator for the DeKalb Public Health Center.

The disease is transmitted through intercourse and through other physical contact.

If people touch an unwashed infected hand to their eye, they might begin to see chlamydia syptoms there as well, Lane said. However, discovering symptoms in eyes is rare.

Chlamydia can be cured within a week, Gubelman said.

Pelvic inflammatory disease can result if chlamydia is not treated. At this stage, it theoretically can become fatal or cause tubal pregnancies, said Jean Gastiger, a nurse from the DeKalb Public Health Office.

She said pregnant women contaminated with chlamydia could have a child born with infections in the eyes, ears and lungs, and the infant could contract pneumonia.