Chlamydial infection. Incidence in 'non-specific' urethritis.

The isolation of Chlamydia in cell culture (Gordon, Harper, Quan, Treharne, Dwyer, and Garland, 1969) from urethral material from three of seven men who had presented because of acute nonspecific urethritis (NSU) was reported by Dunlop, Hare, Darougar, Jones, and Rice (1969). Isolates were also obtained from cervical material from one of three sexual partners of these men. Isolation in yolk sac and the examination of smears were less sensitive tests for Chlamydia in clinical specimens than was culture in cell culture (Gordon and others, 1969; Darougar, Dwyer, Treharne, Harper, Garland, and Jones, 1971). Gordon and Quan (1971) obtained isolates from only nineteen of 84 men with NSU, but the urethral material had been obtained by different methods including a bacteriological loop which appeared to be relatively inefficient. Philip, Hill, Greaves, Gordon, Quan, Gerloff, and Thomas (1971) obtained isolates from seven of 31 men with nongonococcal urethritis (NGU) using swabs and cotton-tipped applicators to collect urethral material. Ford and McCandlish (1971) isolated Chlamydia from urethral material obtained with a curette from only eight of 151 men suffering from NGU. Using the simplified cell culture techniques of Darougar, Kinnison, and Jones (1971a, b), Chlamydia was grown from urethral material obtained by means of a curette, from eighteen (over 40 per cent.) of 41 men who had presented because of NSU and from cervical and other materials from five of 21 of the sexual partners of these men (Dunlop, Hare, Darougar, and Jones, 1971). This series has now been extended to comprise 99 men in whose cases valid tests for Chlamydia were made and 34 of their female sexual partners.