chlamydia

Viruslike bacteria which live parasitically in animal cells, and cause disease in humans and birds. Chlamydiae are thought to be descendants of bacteria that have lost certain metabolic processes. In humans, a strain of chlamydia causes trachoma, a disease found mainly in the tropics (a leading cause of blindness); venereally transmitted chlamydiae cause genital and urinary infections.

Possible links were found between infection with chlamydia and further disorders, including Alzheimer's disease and cervical cancer.

Incidence of sexually transmitted Chlamydia trachomatis may be higher than previously thought, according to a 1998 US study that found 10% of female army recruits to be infected.

Protein from C. pneumoniae (which accounts for 10% of pneumonia cases) has been found in 79% of cases of atheroma (furring up of the arteries) in a US study, and it has also been cultured from a diseased coronary artery, providing a possible link between chlamydia infection and heart disease. A link has also been established between C. Pneumoniae infection and chronic high blood pressure.