Ocular chlamydial infections

The chlamydiae have long been important causes of ocular disease. Trachoma was one of the first documented ocular diseases and is still one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide.(1) Adult inclusion conjunctivitis is not an infrequent cause of follicular conjunctivitis in both the developed and the developing world.(2) Neonatal inclusion conjunctivitis is one of the most common types of neonatal conjunctivitis. Lymphogranuloma venereum, Chlamydia psittaci, and Chlamydia pneumoniae are less common causes of ocular disease but may occasionally be found if suspected and sought.(3) Ocular diseases have played an important role in the history of our knowledge about chlamydia. Trachoma was the first recognized chlamydia disease and was described in Egypt by the sixteenth century Be in the Ebers Papyrus(4,5) The infectious potential of Chlamydia trachomatis was demonstrated by experimental transmission of agent from an Indonesian case of trachoma to an orangutan in 1907.(6) C. pneumoniae also was isolated initially from ocular specimens, long before it became recognized as a major cause of respiratory disease.? Although C. psittaci only rarely causes ocular disease, conjunctivitis was noted as a feature of psittacosis during the great pandemic of 1929 to 1930.(8).