No abstract

SUMMARY A double-blind stratified trial was carried out on 85 patients to assess the efficacy of topical therapy with 1 % chlortetracycline eye ointment in comparison with 1 % rifampicin eye ointment in the treatment of chlamydial ocular infection of sexually transmitted origin (paratrachoma). Patients included were selected on the basis of positive culture for Chlamydia trachomatis. A 6-week course of treatment with chlortetracycline or rifampicin 3 times daily gave a clinical cure rate of 80% and 75% and a microbiological cure rate of 93 % and 86% respectively. In patients who were not cured the intensity of inflammatory responses was considerably reduced.Chlamydial ocular infection of sexually transmitted origin (paratrachoma or TRIC ocular infection) is becoming commoner in the urban populations of both developed and developing countries. This is because of a substantial increase in the incidence of chlamydial genital infections, that is, chlamydial urethritis and chlamydial cervicitis.In a previous paper' it was shown that topical therapy of paratrachoma with rifampicin eye ointment produced a clinical and microbiological cure rate of 90 %. In this paper we present the result of a double-blind stratified trial to assess the efficacy of topical therapy of paratrachoma with rifampicin eye ointment compared with chlortetracycline eye ointment.

(Kurstak et al., 1975), and to study the development cycle of Chlamydia psittaci in peritoneal macrophages of infected mice (Mields et al., 1974