Community-acquired pulmonary infection due to Chlamydia in tropical Queensland

By using enzyme immunoassay and immunofluorescence antigen detection techniques on sputum specimens, four of 260 patients with pulmonary infection resident in tropical Queensland were found to be infected with Chlamydia. All four chlamydial infections were community-acquired and there was no history of close contact with birds by any of the four patients. One woman was deemed to be suffering with Chlamydia pneumonia, while the role of the organism in the pathogenesis of respiratory disease in the other three patients was indeterminate. At present, the incidence of pulmonary chlamydial infection in the population of tropical Queensland does not warrant routine testing, but investigations for these organisms should be undertaken in patients who present to their physicians with atypical pulmonary infection or whose clinical conditions are refractory to penicillin/ampicillin therapy.