Prevalence of Chlamydophila pneumoniae in patients with pneumonia in the main university hospital in Alexandria

BackgroundPneumonia is a common illness in all parts of the world. It is a major cause of death among all age groups and is the leading cause of death in children in low income countries.MethodsThis prospective study was done at Department of chest diseases and microbiology from January 2011 to July 2011. A total of 60 patients, with pneumonia were included in the study.ResultsThe present study was conducted on 60 patients with pneumonia who have been admitted to the Chest Department in the Main University Hospital in Alexandria (55 patients) and El Maamoura Chest Hospital (5 patients) in the period from January 2011 to April 2011. The patients were subdivided into 2 groups: group I includes 30 patients with CAP and group II includes 30 patients with HAP; 16 patients with COPD, 7 patients with bronchial asthma, 4 patients with bronchogenic carcinoma and 3 patients with ILF.ConclusionsWe can conclude that, Chlamydophila pneumoniae cannot be ignored as a cause of pneumonia. ELISA is an excellent screening test because of its high sensitivity for detection of C. pneumoniae while PCR is more accurate because of its high sensitivity and high specificity in diagnosis of C. pneumoniae infection.DM is a risk factor for C. pneumoniae infection.