Isolation ofChlamydia trachomatisfrom Infant Lung Tissue

Abstract

Chlamydia trachomatis causes inclusion conjunctivitis in newborns¹ and is etiologically associated with urethritis in men² and cervicitis in women.³ Recently, C. trachomatis has been identified as a respiratory colonist and possible pathogen in infants with pneumonia. In one report, the organism was recovered from a 7 1/2-week-old infant with conjunctivitis and pneumonia.⁴ Also, Beem and Saxon conducted a prospective study of 12 infants with a "distinctive pneumonia syndrome" in which C. trachomatis was isolated from conjunctiva, nasopharynx or trachea alone or in combination.⁵ However, their attempts to demonstrate chlamydia in tissue obtained from two open-lung biopsies were unsuccessful. In the . . .