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Chlamydia Is Among The Smallest Organisms Essay

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Chlamydia is among the smallest organisms. Under a microscope, they are seen as obligate intracellular parasites. One characteristic of Chlamydia is that they could not produce their own energy which makes them completely dependent on the energy of their hosts (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2001).
Chlamydia undergoes two stages in its development, namely the elementary bodies and the reticulate bodies. In its elementary stage, this organism meets its host and is taken up by phagocytosis which thwarts the process of combination of the lysosome and phagosome. This microscopic event normally kills pathogens. Once the formation of phagolysosome is stopped, the bacteria produce glycogen and it then changes into the reticulate body. Reticulate bodies attain their energy by sending forth “straw-like” structures into the cell cytoplasm of their host. These bodies then are divided by binary fission. It is estimated that for each phagolysosome about 100-1000 reticulate bodies are produced (Chlamydia Trachomatis, n.d.).
Causes
Chlamydia infection is particularly caused by the bacteria known as Chlamydia trachomatis which in turn causes cervicitis and bartholinitis in women and urethritis in men. It also causes extragenital infections which include rectal and oropharyngeal infections (World Health Organization, 2016). As a form of sexually transmitted infection, an individual may get infected through sexual contact – vaginal, anal, or oral sex. A person is more likely

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