Chlamydia first became recognized as a specific STI in the 1970s, but it took until 1988 for it to become notifiable. Newly diagnosed cases were reported only routinely in STI statistics from 1990, when there were 34,000 new diagnoses. The number began to rise steeply after 1995, reaching 100,000 in 2003.

When was the first case of chlamydia?

It was discovered in 1907 by Halberstaedter and von Prowazek who observed it in conjunctival scrapings from an experimentally infected orangutan. In the last hundred years the detection and study of the intracellular pathogens, including chlamydiae, passed through an enormous evolution.

How did chlamydia start in humans?

Professor Timms said the research revealed evidence that humans were originally infected zoonotically by animal isolates of Chlamydia pneumoniae which have adapted to humans primarily through the processes of gene decay.