Chlamydia infections..?

Describe how chlamydial infections can lead to ectopic pregnacies and blindness?

Chlamydia is a curable sexually transmitted disease (STD) caused by the bacteria Chlamydia trachomatis. It is a leading cause of sexually transmitted disease in industrial societies, and of preventable infectious blindness (ocular trachoma) in the developing world. It is also one of the main causes of infertility in humans.

Chlamydia can be spread during oral, vaginal or anal sexual contact with an infected partner. In addition, chlamydial infection may affect a newborn baby. A baby who is exposed to C. trachomatis in the birth canal during delivery may develop an eye infection or pneumonia. Symptoms of conjunctivitis (or 鈥減ink eye鈥? usually develop within the first 10 days of life and include discharge and swollen eyelids. Symptoms of pneumonia, such as congestion and a cough that gets steadily worse, most often develop within three to six weeks of birth. Because of these risks to the newborn, many doctors recommend that all pregnant women be tested for chlamydial infection.

Because genital chlamydial infections are asymptomatic in 75 percent of women and 50 percent of men, affected individuals often do not seek appropriate medical care. Left untreated, chlamydia can cause urethral infection and epididymitis in males. In addition, 40 percent of women with untreated chlamydia will develop pelvic inflammatory disease, and 20 percent of these women will become infertile. Pelvic inflammatory disease can also cause scarring of the fallopian tubes, which increases the likelihood of an ectopic pregnancy, a potentially fatal condition in which a fertilized egg develops in the body somewhere other than in the uterus. If chlamydia infection occurs during pregnancy, it can cause adverse outcomes such as premature labor and delivery, as well as conjunctivitis and pneumonia in newborns (see above). Moreover, women infected with chlamydia have a three- to five-fold increased risk of acquiring HIV, if exposed.