Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site gatech.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gatech!carter From: carter@gatech.UUCP (Carter Bullard) Newsgroups: net.med Subject: Re: Reiter's Syndrome (and chlamydia) Message-ID: <12437@gatech.UUCP> Date: Sat, 9-Mar-85 12:50:56 EST Article-I.D.: gatech.12437 Posted: Sat Mar 9 12:50:56 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 11-Mar-85 04:39:31 EST References: <1640@pur-phy.UUCP> <497@ptsfa.UUCP> <1243@amdahl.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: School of ICS, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Lines: 48 > I thought chlamydia was a bacteria. Yet here we have Merck > saying that Reiters is associated with 'nonbacterial > urethritis'; and proposing that tetracycline may control it... > Am I reading this wrong or what? Is chlamydia a bacteria or a virus? > Can tetracycline do anything against viruses? > > And what is this chlamydia stuff anyway. I'd never heard of it > before, and now its in magazine articles and on the net. Is this > the newest fad bug? Well, Chlamydia is bacteria-like and tetracycline is the drug of choice. Chlamydia is normally associated as the bugger responsible for non-specific urethritis, or better known as non-gonococcal urethritis. Tetracycline, acts as a bacteriostatic, that is it stops bacteria from dividing, thus allowing your own immune system to catch up and take care of the problem. It works quite well against chlamydia. It does not have any action against viruses( why isn't the plural for virus, viri?). The second drug of choice is erythromycin which works a little like penicillin in that it causes the dividing bacteria to produce defective cell walls. The Merck Manual (oh, by the way Merck is a drug company, not an author), indicates that tetracycline is intended for the urethritis, not the Reiters syndrome. Reiters results from an autoimmune reaction that can be triggered by a chlamydia invasion, presumably because the antibodies produced against the chlamydia also have a slight tendency to attach to certain types of collagen found in certain types of cartilage that are located in certain places in and around your body. Rheumatic fever is a very similar problem, where antibodies to streptococcus like to attach to the elastic fibers in the valves of your heart, thus the phrase "my rheumatic heart" and the reason that you should not let a persistant sore throat go unnoticed. Reiters is not specifically the result of a chlamydia infection. Chlamydia has been around for about 3 billion +_ 1 billion years. It however is becoming noticed because of its increased contribution to the venereal disease problem that we Americans just love to maintain. It seems to have developed in the last 2 years a tendency to produce a more pronounced set of symptoms making it a little more obvious to the males that become infected, and as a result more cases are being reported. -- Carter Bullard ICS, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA 30332 CSNet:Carter @ Gatech ARPA:Carter.Gatech @ CSNet-relay.arpa uucp:...!{akgua,allegra,amd,ihnp4,hplabs,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!carter