Chlamydophila pneumoniae , A Pathogen Causing More Than Pneumonia

Chlamydophila (Chlamydia) pneumoniae is a member of the Chlamydiaceae that was initially recognized as a respiratory pathogen in the late 1980s. C. pneumoniae is clearly a respiratory pathogen, but due to its obligate intracellular lifecycle and its use of extracellular infectious elementary bodies to infect other mammalian cells, this pathogen has been implicated in chronic human diseases other than pneumonia. This review discusses the role of C. pneumoniae as a respiratory pathogen and described the pathogenesis that is thought to allow this respiratory pathogen to chronically infect other human tissues and thus cause chronic disease.