Role of Chlamydia trachomatis in Upper-Respiratory-Tract Infections in Children

The authors have previously reported a progressive, age-related acquisition of antibodies to C. trachomatis in a seroepidemiological survey of 820 children. The authors entertained the possibility of chlamydial infection of the upper respiratory tract, including pharyngitis, as a cause of the observed seropositivity, since C. trachomatis is an established cause of conjunctivitis and lower-respiratory-tract infection in early infancy. A study was done to investigate the possible role of C. trachomatis in upper-respiratory-tract infections of children. C. trachomatis does not appear to be an important cause of upper-respiratory-tract infection in children. By Poisson distribution, this sample size of 164 had a 97% chance of yielding at least one positive culture if the incidence of C. trachomatis -associated upper-respiratory-tract infection was one in 30 and a 67% chance if the incidence were one in 100.