Putting It All Together: Integrating Basic Science and Epidemiologic Findings to Inform Chlamydia Control Programs

The effectiveness of chlamydia screening depends in part on the risk and timing of tubal inflammation and damage relative to acquisition of infection, the average duration of infection at the time of screening, and the balance between subsequent tubal damage from detected infections versus susceptibility to new repeat infections. The impact of expedited partner therapy and screening for re-infection depends in part on whether protective immunity develops following an initial infection and whether tissue-damaging immune responses are accelerated with repeat infection. Key programmatic issues will be discussed in the context of basic science findings from the 2008 Chlamydia Immunology meeting.