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Chlamydial Infection

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Advances in Perinatal Medicine

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Abstract

The organism now known as Chlamydia trachomatis was first discovered in 1907 from the eye scrapings of adults with trachoma.1 The organism that formed inclusions within conjunctival cells of adults was also noted in 1909 to be present in the conjunctiva of neonates with nongonococcal ophthalmia neonatorium,2 and by the 1930s the organism was a well-established cause of neonatal conjunctivitis. It was also recognized by the 1940s that similar inclusions were present in the urethral discharge of men with nongonococcal urethritis and that discharge could infect the cervix of pregnant female partners who in turn infected the eyes of neonates during delivery.3 However, at this date, the organism had not been cultured, and it could only be identified by smear. The subsequent ability to culture Chlamydia—first in embryonated hen’s eggs and then in tissue culture—permitted what has now become a tremendous expansion of knowledge about both the organism and the diseases it causes. Prior cytologic methods used to detect C. trachomatis in the eye were too insensitive to identify the organism in genital tract secretions. Direct cytologic smears from the cervix, such as Giemsa stain, will detect only 20–40% of cervical culture-positive women. The ability to culture Chlamydia has led to the identification of many new infections and syndromes caused by C. trachomatis that would not have been recognized by using cytology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 98195, USA

    David A. Eschenbach

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  1. David A. Eschenbach
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Aubrey Milunsky MB.B.Ch., D.Sc., F.R.C.P., D.C.H.

  2. Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Emanuel A. Friedman M.D., Sc.D.

  3. Irvine School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, California, USA

    Louis Gluck M.D.

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© 1986 Aubrey Milunsky, Emanuel A. Friedman, and Louis Gluck

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Eschenbach, D.A. (1986). Chlamydial Infection. In: Milunsky, A., Friedman, E.A., Gluck, L. (eds) Advances in Perinatal Medicine. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9468-0_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9468-0_6

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