A new Chlamydia psittaci strain, TWAR, isolated in acute respiratory tract infections

During a 2 1/2-year period, we studied 386 University of Washington students with acute respiratory disease, to determine whether a Chlamydia psittaci strain, here designated TWAR, is an important respiratory pathogen. Serologic evidence of recent TWAR infection was found in 13 students, and the organism was isolated from 8 of these. TWAR infection occurred in 12 percent of the students who had pneumonia (9 of 76), 5 percent of those with bronchitis (3 of 63), and 1 percent of those with pharyngitis (1 of 150). The TWAR infections occurred throughout the study period. Pharyngitis, often accompanied by laryngitis, was a common first symptom. Clinically, the infections resembled those with Myco-plasma pneumoniae; therefore, the patients were given courses of erythromycin used for the treatment of M. pneumoniae infections. This therapy proved to be inadequate. The limited data available suggest that the TWAR strain is a "human" C. psittaci that is spread from human to human, without a bird or animal host.