| 释义 |
chlamydia|kləˈmɪdɪə|
Also Chlamydia. Pl. -iæ, -ias.
[mod.L., f. Gr. χλαµύς, χλαµύδ- mantle + -ia1.]
1. Biol. and Med. A virus-like bacterium of the genus Chlamydia, which comprises Gram-negative coccoids that reproduce as intracellular parasites in vertebrates and occasionally arthropods, causing numerous diseases (as trachoma, genital infections, and infantile pneumonia in man, and psittacosis and abortion in animals).
Orig. proposed (quot. 1945) as the name of a larger taxon than the genus.
[1945H. Jones et al. in Jrnl. Infectious Dis. LXXVI. 55/2 Evidence has accumulated serving to separate this group from the true viruses and place it in a position between the bacteria and the viruses, analogous to the Rickettsiae, with the name Chlamydia.] 1966Ann. Rev. Microbiol. XX. 107 (heading) The relation of the psittacosis group (chlamydiae) to bacteria and viruses. Ibid. 124 The generic epithet, Chlamydia, proposed for the psittacosis group by Page furnishes the convenient trivial name chlamydiae from which may be derived the concept of the protochlamydiae, the hypothetical first chlamydiae from which all others have descended. 1967Jrnl. Immunol. XCVIII. 735/1 Infection with living chlamydiae. 1973Frobisher & Fuerst Microbiol. Health & Dis. (ed. 13) v. 73 Chlamydias appear to parasitise their host cell for most of their energy and to lack most energy-yielding enzyme systems. 1977Lancet 9 Apr. 787/2 Schachter et al. isolated chlamydiæ from the sputum of an infant who had had a prolonged attack of conjunctivitis (probably chlamydial since both parents had genital chlamydial infection). 1984Tighe & Davies Pathology (ed. 4) xiii. 109 Patterns of infective endocarditis intermediate between the two classical forms are now seen and the range of micro-organisms has increased to include fungi.., rickettsiae..and chlamydiae.
2. A chlamydial infection of the genitals.
1984Advertiser (Adelaide) 22 June, The spread of chlamydia, until recently a relatively unknown venereal disease, has reached epidemic proportions. 1985New Scientist 7 Nov. 23/3 Chlamydia should be one of the easiest sexually transmitted diseases to prevent and to treat. 1986Sunday Tel. 3 Aug. 8/2 Herpes scares were followed by Aids scares, Aids scares by chlamydia, dubbed ‘The disease of the '80s’, a sexually transmitted disease which can kill the unborn child and infects between 3 million and 10 million Americans every year.
Hence chlaˈmydial a., of, pertaining to, or caused by chlamydiæ.
1967Jrnl. Immunol. XCVIII. 732 The Subcommittee on the Chlamydiaceae..has concurred in a proposal..to include all of the organisms of the psittacosis–lymphogranuloma venereum–trachoma group in the genus Chlamydia Jones, Rake, Stearns 1945; hence, the vernacular term, chlamydial infection, is used. 1971H. Pinkerton in W.A.D. Anderson Pathology (ed. 6) I. xi. 365 (heading) Rickettsial, chlamydial, and viral diseases. Ibid., In the case of..chlamydial replication, this metabolic diversion is probably limited to a few critical enzymes. 1977Lancet 22 Oct. 857/1 Chlamydial urethritis or chlamydial cervicitis..are the commonest venereal diseases in developed countries. 1985New Scientist 7 Nov. 22/1 Only recently has the true severity of chlamydial infection come home to doctors. Chlamydia trachomatis, a major cause of blindness in the Third World, is now known to be responsible for some 40 per cent of cases of pelvic inflammatory disease in Britain. |