Symptoms of Chlamydia

Chlamydia is a common pathogen in people's lives. If the female reproductive system is infected with Chlamydia, it will cause some gynecological inflammation. If infants and young children are infected, it is easy to cause Chlamydia trachomatis. This shows how much harm Chlamydia can cause to the human body. It is precisely because of this that this article will give a detailed introduction to the symptoms of chlamydia, and I hope that everyone will pay enough attention to this disease.

1. Chlamydia pneumoniae infection (CP)

Chlamydia pneumoniae is a recently identified new species of Chlamydia that can cause upper and lower respiratory tract infections. CP pneumonia is nonspecific in symptoms and signs compared with other pneumonias. The incubation period is 10 to 65 days. The initial symptoms are often upper respiratory tract infection symptoms such as sore throat, hoarseness, and runny nose, with sore throat being the most common. The most common symptoms of CP appear 1 to 4 weeks later: fever and cough. The fever can last for 1 to 7 days. The cough is mainly dry. Physical examination may reveal dry and wet rales, occasional rib pain, and some patients may experience asthma. Most patients have mild symptoms, but recovery is slow and symptoms may last for weeks to months. When it infects the elderly and patients with chronic diseases, pneumonia is often severe, sometimes accompanied by pleural effusion, and can cause death. Chlamydia pneumoniae infection can also cause extrapulmonary symptoms such as endocarditis, myocarditis, pericarditis, erythema nodosum, hepatitis, meningitis, and encephalitis.

2. Other Chlamydia Infections

(1) Trachoma Chlamydia trachomatis can be divided into 15 types based on their antigens, of which types A, B, Ba or C cause trachoma. The general incubation period is about 3 to 10 days. The initial infection is more common in children. In the acute phase, there are tearing, purulent secretions on the eyelids, conjunctival congestion and follicle formation. Chronic disease can persist for several years. In mild cases, there may be no symptoms or itching of the eye and a foreign body sensation in the conjunctiva. Conjunctival follicles are often seen. Repeated infection or concurrent bacterial infection may cause corneal pannus and scarring. The severity of the disease has nothing to do with the type of Chlamydia, but is related to the frequency of repeated infection.

(2) Urinary and reproductive system infections are most common in adults. About 50% to 60% of non-gonococcal urethritis is caused by Chlamydia trachomatis infection. The incubation period is 6 to 14 days. Symptoms may include frequent urination, urgency, difficulty urinating, congestion of the urethral mucosa, and increased secretions. The pain when urinating is not obvious and may resolve on its own, but most patients develop a chronic course of the disease with repeated attacks. Combined with prostatitis, symptoms include frequent urination, difficulty urinating, and perineal pain. Subclinical infection accounts for 20% to 50%. About 2/3 of acute epididymitis in young people is caused by chlamydia, which can cause infertility.

(3) Psittacosis is caused by infection with Chlamydia psittaci. The clinical manifestations of this disease vary greatly. The incubation period is 3 to 45 days, generally 6 to 15 days. Most cases are the most common pneumonia or atypical pneumonia types, and a few are systemic reaction types such as toxemia and sepsis. The onset is generally sudden, with chills and high fever. There are also cases where the disease develops slowly, with symptoms such as general discomfort, fatigue, low fever, and loss of appetite in the initial 3 to 4 days.

This article has given a detailed introduction to the symptoms of chlamydia. No matter what kind of symptoms it is, patients need to pay attention to it, and chlamydia is contagious to a certain extent. Therefore, it is hoped that the patient's family can do a good job of prevention during the patient's illness to avoid being infected with chlamydia themselves. Only in this way can we take better care of the patient and help the patient recover soon.