The History of Chlamydia

The word ‘chlamydia’ comes form the Greek word ‘chlamys’ which means, “cloak draped around the shoulder”. This describes how the intracytoplasmic inclusions caused by the bacterium are “draped” around the infected cell’s nucleus. (1)

Because the symptoms of chlamydia are similar to some other infections it was not recognised as a sexually transmitted disease until recently.

In 1963 the existence of chlamydia was confirmed as a bacterium. Originally, because of its structure it was thought to be a virus. (2)