Chlamydia Trachomatis: Milestones in clinical and microbiological diagnostics in the last hundred years

Abstract

Chlamydia trachomatis an obligate intracellular, Gram-negative bacterium is the causative agent of several acute or chronic, local and systemic human diseases such as trachoma, oculogenital and neonatal infections. It was discovered in 1907 by Halberstaedter and von Prowazek who observed it in conjunctival scrapings from an experimentally infected orangutan. In the last hundred years the detection and study of the intracellular pathogens, including chlamydiae, passed through an enormous evolution. This memorial review is dedicated to these important research and diagnostic discoveries and to the scientists who significantly contributed to this evolution starting from the application of simple light microscopy through the cell culture technique, antibiotic susceptibility, antigen and antibody detection, serotyping, to the real-time nucleic acid amplification and restriction fragment lengths polymorphism analysis. Although the majority of these old and new excellent diagnostic methods have been introduced into the rutine practice, the trachoma has remained one of the leading causes of blindness, and oculogenital chlamydial infections still are the most frequent sexually transmitted bacterial diseases, furthermore lymphogranuloma venereum is a disease emerging in the developed countries at the beginning of the 21 st century.

Identification of macrolide‐resistant Mycoplasma genitalium using real‐time PCR

“…Mycoplasma genitalium is the second most frequent cause of non‐gonococcal urethritis (NGU) in Western Europe, although it is not yet routinely tested for. The most common cause of NGU is Chlamydia trachomatis and evidence for C. trachomatis causing genitourinary disease has been known since the early 1900s, 80 years before the discovery of M. genitalium . Subsequently, empirical treatment for NGU has been developed primarily to treat C. trachomatis .…”

A Meta‐analysis of the Efficacy of Ocular Prophylactic Agents Used for the Prevention of Gonococcal and Chlamydial Ophthalmia Neonatorum

“…Another change was the identification of Chlamydia trachomatis in 1907 and subsequent recognition in the 1930s and 1940s that it can also cause ON. 3,4 This infection is much more prevalent in North American women than gonorrhea (e.g., 543.6 per 100,000 vs. 123.5 per 100,000 in the United States in 2007). 5 Chlamydial ON (CON) progresses more slowly than GON and is less likely to cause blindness.…”

The prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection among infertile males and its association with abnormal semen characteristics in Delta State, Nigeria

“…Chlamydia trachomatis is now known to be the commonest cause of sexually transmitted diseases that is not of viral origin (Stock & Henrichfreise, 2012). C. trachomatis is an obligate intracellular organism and can cause numerous disease states in both men and women (Budai, 2007). Both sexes can display urethritis, proctitis (rectal disease and bleeding), trachoma, and infertility.…”