Chlamydia Pneumoniae

00:01 Chlamydia pneumoniae, finally, our third type of chlamydia that causes human disease and as mentioned several times, causes primarily, respiratory tract infections and it is transmitted as you would imagine via respiratory droplets through aerosols.

00:16 There is a strong association in this case of Chlamydia pneumoniae with coronary artery disease and that may be due to its inflammatory reaction within the level of blood vessels.

00:28 Clinical manifestations of Chlamydia pneumoniae are pharyngitis, sinusitis, and bronchitis basically starting at the top, working the way down.

00:38 And then, most patients will develop an atypical pneumonia.

00:43 Now, what does that mean? If you think of a round or a lobar pneumonia as being a typical pneumonia, the atypical pneumonias are typically interstitial and spread throughout both lung fields and throughout the entire chest x-ray picture. If you look at the x-ray on the slide, you can see scattered patchy infiltrations throughout all the lung fields both sides.

01:08 That would be a very typical pattern for an atypical pneumonia.

01:12 Patients with an atypical pneumonia will typically have a persistent cough which is non-productive, a dry staccato cough just like we described for infants with Chlamydia Trachomatis and these patients with Chlamydia pneumoniae will also have malaise.

01:29 So, three different forms of disease from three different types although related of Chlamydia.

01:35 The most significant in terms of impact worldwide is that of Chlamydia Trachomatis and it is also potentially the most preventable.

01:43 Barrier contraceptive methods, handwashing, and then, for the other forms, don’t change the parrot cage without a mask and wash your hands.