What is chlamydia?
Chlamydia is a genus of intracellular bacteria that includes 3 species that are known to be pathogenic to humans, these are:
- Chlamydia trachomatis
- Chlamydia psittaci
- Chlamydia pneumoniae
How is this infection transmitted?
Chlamydia psittaci is caught from infected wild or domesticated birds and enters the body through the respiratory tract. Chlamydia pneumoniae can be passed on from human to human via the respiratory tract.
Chlamydia trachomitis is an STI and is spread through sexual contact. Eye infection can occur when there is contact with contaminated fingers or objects such as eye liner pencils. Babies may become exposed to the disease when being born if the mother is infected. Poor hygiene and water shortages make chlamydia more likely to spread.
How is chlamydia diagnosed?
An infection of chlamydia may be diagnosed by analysing a blood sample for antibodies produced by the body to fight the disease. It can also be identified by examining tissue samples under a microscope. Most commonly, chlamydia is diagnosed by a simple assessment of a patient’s symptoms.
What effect can it have on physical health?
Each of the chlamydia species affects different parts of the body and therefore, causes different symptoms. Chlamydia psittaci causes the illness psittacosis, which produces flu-like symptoms in the host and can progress into a case of pneumonia. Chlamydia pneumoniae causes inflammation in the lungs and can also lead to pneumonia.
Usually, chlamydia trachomatis causes infection in the rectum, urethra and genital tract, which may lead to the development of ulcers. Men man experience prostate inflammation, while women are likely to have problems in the uterus. This infection can ultimately lead to infertility in women.
It can also cause lower respiratory tract infections, which may lead on to pneumonia in patients who already have a weak immune system. When chlamydia trachomatis infection affects the eyes, this can result in pain, conjunctivitis and inward-growing eyelashes. The irritation from a person’s eyelashes can further result in cloudy vision and sometimes even blindness.
In some cases, symptoms of chlamydia do not become evident until a long time after a person has been exposed to the disease, even years later.
What effect can it have on mental health?
The emotional impact and stigma of being affected by this serious illness can in itself be detrimental to a person’s mental health. This is especially true if the eyesight is damaged by a particularly unpleasant infection or if the disease has led to infertility in a person who wanted to have children. In addition, some evidence indicates that a chlamydia infection may be linked to mental disorders such as schizophrenia.
In one study, patients with schizophrenia and other mental health issues were found to have a significantly higher chance of having a chlamydia infection than individuals without mental disorders. Also, treatment with antibiotics was shown to reduce psychiatric symptoms in people with chlamydia. This indicates that the presence of chlamydia may have directly contributed towards their mental health symptoms.
One case study involved a healthy young woman who was studying business at university. After having recovered from a mild case of fever, headache and sore throat, she rapidly began to deteriorate with severe psychiatric symptoms and was admitted to hospital. Her symptoms included aggression, paranoid delusions and auditory hallucinations.
The cause of this episode of psychosis was found to be meningoencephalitis (infection of the brain and surrounding tissue) caused by chlamydia pneumoniae. This example suggests that chlamydia can cause symptoms of psychosis if the brain becomes infected.
What is the current treatment?
Chlamydia infections may be treated with antibiotics such as tetracycline or erythromycine. Cases where a patient’s eyelashes have caused irritation by growing inwards require corrective surgery. BICOM® Bioresonance therapy can be useful in the fight against STDs such as chlamydia in a number of ways. These include helping to strengthen the immune system, removing toxins from the body and helping to combat oxidative stress; all of these factors can support the body’s natural defence mechanisms.
Conclusion
Chlamydia is group of bacterial infections which can cause a range of unpleasant symptoms in humans that may have lasting health consequences. These symptoms can have a negative impact on a person’s self-esteem and mental wellbeing. Some research also indicates that chlamydia may directly contribute towards mental health problems, such as those associated with schizophrenia. Antibiotic treatment and bioresonance therapy can both be effective in helping to fight these illnesses and their related symptoms.