Chlamydia pneumoniae causes approximately 10% of community-acquired pneumonia and 5% of pharyngitis, bronchitis, and sinusitis C. pneumoniae infection is ubiquitous. Virtually everyone is infected at some point in their lives and re-infection commonly occurs.
The clinical symptoms of C. pneumoniae pulmonary infections are similar to those caused by other respiratory pathogens. Coughing is very common and prolonged. Although pneumonia is often relatively mild, recovery is slow, even with antibiotic therapy.Considerable knowledge of the epidemiology of
C. pneumoniae infection has been derived from serological studies. Antibodies against C. pneumoniae
are rare in children under the age of 5, except in developing and tropical countries.The antibody prevalence increases rapidly between the ages of 5 to 14, reaches 50% at the age of 20 and continues to increase slowly to between 70% and 80% at ages 60 to 70. The spectrum of C. pneumoniae infections has been extended to atherosclerotic vascular disease and its clinical manifestations. Sero-epidemiologic studies
have associated C. pneumoniae antibodies with coronary artery disease myocardial infarction carotid artery disease and cerebrovascular disease.
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