Madelyn Wald, Claire Bedore Hour 1 Chlamydia Trachomatis

Chlamydia trachomatis is a bacteria spread by skin-to-skin sexual contact. Chlamydia trachomatis, abbreviated to C. trachomatis, is an obligate intracellular pathogen, which means it is a bacterium that lives within human cells. C. trachomatis is a Gram-Negative bacterium; therefore its cell wall compounds retain the purple stain. The bacterium has also been known to cause the STI chlamydia. Chlamydia trachomatis was first discovered in 1907 by Stanislaus von Prowazek in Berlin, but the agent was first cultured in the yolk sacs of eggs by Professor Feifan Tang in 1957. This disease wasnt very prevalent 100 years ago, as the bacterium is spread by skin-toskin sex. No treatment was available 100 years ago, because chlamydia was unheard of. Since there are no shown symptoms in 80% of patients, the patient would never suspect they even had the disease. Death by chlamydia killed 2 deaths per million people in 2004 and is extremely uncommon, but chlamydia can cause complications such as infertility or pelvic inflammatory disease. 30 years ago, scientists had a cure for chlamydia using an antibiotic, but they didnt have as many antibiotics as there are today. If you got chlamydia today, you would be given an antibiotic such as azithromycin, doxycycline, erythromycin, or ofloxacin. Most patients are cured within one to two weeks. 10 years from now, chlamydia will still be curable, but most likely not with the same antibiotics. In a study released on March 12, 2012 in Nature Genetics, researchers have found that Chlamydia has evolved more actively than was previously thought. New strains are expected to appear. New antibiotics will have to be found to cure the new strains.