Chlamydia Pneumonia / C pneumoniae

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Chlamydia Pneumonia C pneumoniae

Clinical Features Pneumonia or bronchitis:

Gradual onset of cough with little or no fever.

Less common presentations are pharyngitis, laryngitis, and sinusitis.

Etiologic Agent Chlamydia pneumoniae:

This bacterium was recognized in 1983 as a respiratory pathogen, after

isolation from a college student with pharyngitis.

Incidence Each year an estimated 50,000 adults are hospitalized with

pneumonia in the United States. The overall incidence is unknown.

Sequelae C. pneumoniae infection may be associated with atherosclerotic

vascular disease. Associations with Alzheimer’s disease, asthma, and

reactive arthritis have been proposed.

United States Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Treatment

Treatment varies depending on the specific type of Chlamydia causing the

infection. A newborn with Chlamydia trachomatis improves rapidly with

erythromycin. Chlamydia psittaci infection is treated with tetracycline,

bed rest, oxygen supplementation, and codeine-containing cough

preparations. Chlamydia pneumoniae infection is treated with

erythromycin.

Finnish investigators used lymecycline to treat the reactive arthritis

in Chlamydia trachomatous infections. The study compared the effect of

the medication in patients with two other reactive arthritis infections

Yersinia and Campylobacter

Chlamydia pneumoniae by forensic PCR.

Justification: Many CFS, FMS patients have this systemic infection along

with mycoplasmal and viral infection(s).

Test 07039 (CPT: 87532) HHV-6 test by forensic PCR.

Justification: Many CFS and some FMS patients have this systemic viral

infection, and it should be tested for in any autoimmune illness.

Specimen Requirements: Collect blood in one (1) 5 cc Lavender Top

Plasma Tubes (EDTA), mixed and separate blood plasma by centrifugation.

The plasma is then shipped on wetice or immediately flash frozen and

shipped with dry ice by courier to IMD to arrive within 24-36 hours.

Heart infections (myocarditis, endocarditis, pericarditis and others)

are often due to chronic infections, such as Mycoplasma,40, 41

Chlamydia42 and possibly other infectious agents.

Conclusions-----------

We have proposed that chronic infections are an appropriate explanation

for the morbidity seen in a rather large subset of CFS, FMS, GWI and RA

patients, and in a variety of other illnesses. Not every patient will

have this as a diagnostic explanation or have the same types of chronic

infections.1, 7, 17

Some patients may have chemical or radiological exposures or other

environmental problems as an underlying reason for their chronic signs

and symptoms. In these patients, chronic infections may be

opportunistic. In others, somatoform disorders or illnesses caused by

psychological or psychiatric problems may indeed be important. However,

in these patients antibiotics or immune enhancers should have no lasting

effect whatsoever, and they should not recover on such therapies.

The identification of specific infectious agents in the blood of

chronically ill patients may allow many patients with CFS, FMS, GWI or

RA and other chronic diseases to obtain more specific diagnoses and

effective treatments for their illnesses.

Finally, patients with cardiopathies, AIDS, respiratory illnesses and

urogenital infections are often infected with Mycoplasma, Chlamydia,

Brucella or other chronic, invasive bacterial and parasitic infections,

and these patients could benefit from appropriate antibiotic and

neutraceutical therapies that alleviate morbidity.

Chronic diseases contribute significantly to worldwide morbidity and

mortality. In the United States chronic diseases account for 70% of all

deaths and 61% of all health care costs.

Recent evidence indicates that microbial organisms play a role in the

pathogenesis of a number of chronic diseases, including some cancers and

a variety of cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and

neurological diseases.

Examples include peptic ulcers and gastric cancer (Helicobacter pylori),

as well as Lyme arthritis and neuroborreliosis (Borrelia burgdorferi).

In addition, there are a number of chronic diseases in which an

infectious etiology is likely, but not proven. Recently, an association

between Chlamydia pneumonia infection and the development of

atherosclerosis in human and animal models has been noted. Now other

diseases are suspected of being at least partly infection-caused:

For heart disease and atherosclerosis, they suspect infection by the

bacterium Chlamydia pneumoniae, and perhaps other bacteria found in

dental plaque.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) may have infectious origin. Some people think

the cause could be herpes virus 6, and others think it could be a

spirochete bacterium.

Rheumatic diseases. See the Road Back Foundation website for discussion

and a long-term low-dose antibiotic protocol for treatment of rheumatoid

arthritis and other rheumatic diseases, including scleroderma, lupus,

polymyositis, Reiter's syndrome, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing

spondylitis, and fibromyalgia. The theory is that all these diseases

are caused by immune reaction to chronic mycoplasma infection.

Other diseases cited by Relman, Stanford professor of medicine ,

microbiology, and immunology, include " sarcoidosis, various forms of

inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus

erythematosus, Wegener's granulomatosis, diabetes mellitus, primary

biliary cirrhosis, tropical sprue, and Kawasaki disease. " And other

diseases suspected by Ewald and Cochran include cerebral

palsy, polycistic ovary disease, obesity, and some eating disorders.