title: Ophthalmia neonatorum in a trachoma endemic area.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Chlamydia trachomatis can be directly transmitted by sexual or perinatal contact and indirectly transmitted by flies or fomites. Whether distinct epidemiologic forces among human populations or biologic characteristics of the organism are responsible for the different routes of transmission is uncertain.
  
  
  METHODS
  To determine if ophthalmia neonatorum and trachoma are linked epidemiologically, 38 infants with ophthalmia and 277 children with trachoma were studied for evidence of C. trachomatis infection using culture, antigen and DNA detection tests. The study was performed in a trachoma endemic area of central Kenya.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of infants with ophthalmia neonatorum, 8% to 9% had microbiologic evidence of ocular C. trachomatis infection. Of the children with trachoma, 31% had evidence of chlamydial infection. Ninety-two percent of the 59 identified strains causing trachoma belonged to the classic trachoma serovars (A, B, Ba and C). Neither of the two chlamydial strains recovered from infants with ophthalmia was a trachoma serovar. Mothers rarely (3%) had cervical C. trachomatis infection.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study does not support a major role for perinatally transmitted C. trachomatis infection in trachoma epidemiology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Datta
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Frost
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Peeling
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Masinde
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Deslandes
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Echelu
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Wamola
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Brunham
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002584:Cervix Uteri / Q000382:microbiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002690:Chlamydia Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission; D002692:Chlamydia trachomatis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007630:Kenya / Q000453:epidemiology; D009878:Ophthalmia Neonatorum / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D014141:Trachoma / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology