Infection with chlamydia, or chlamydia, is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) highly contagious transmitted by bacteria such as Chlamydia trachomatis during unprotected sex. If it does not cause any symptoms, it can lead to upper genital infections, such as endometritis and salpingitis (inflammation of a tube of the womb) and increases the risk of infertility and ectopic pregnancy.
London researchers may well develop the first vaccine capable of protecting against this STI, the most common in the world, especially in young women between 18 and 24 years old.
The team at the Imperial Clinical Research Center at the National Institute for Health Research at Hammersmith Hospital, London has conducted the first phase 1 trial of a new vaccine to prevent infection with C. trachomatis. For the moment, these are only preliminary results, but they have shown a satisfactory immunogenic response among the panel of 35 women participating in the study. They were between 19 and 45 years old, were not pregnant and had no history of chlamydia.
No serious side effects reported
Injection of the experimental vaccine caused the formation of antibodies against the bacterium C trachomatis. These initial results demonstrated the safety of the vaccine and no serious vaccine-related adverse events were observed during the trial, say the authors of the study published in The Lancet Infectious Disease. Only a minor local reaction at the injection site (pain, tenderness to touch and / or decreased range of motion) has been reported.
Wearing a condom is the only effective way to prevent chlamydia infection. Although easy to track and to be treated with antibiotics, when left untreated, the infection can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease in 1 in 6 women, the study said. And about half of infants born to mothers with chlamydia develop a congenital infection.
In recent years, STI diagnoses due to chlamydia bacteria have strongly increased, was in 2018 Public health France.
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