New chlamydia species discovered deep under the Arctic Ocean

 When people hear the word chlamydia, they usually think about sexually transmitted infections.

And it's true that the specific bacteria that causes chlamydia typically depend on interactions with other organisms to survive.

So when a team of researchers discovered several new chlamydia-related species deep below the Arctic Ocean, in a place with no oxygen and without an apparent host organism, they were 

"Finding Chlamydiae in this environment was completely unexpected, and of course begged the question what on earth were they doing there?" Jennah Dharamshi, a PhD student at Uppsala University in Sweden and the lead author of a recent study, said in a news release.

The findings, published last week in Current Biology, could shed new light on how chlamydia came to infect humans and other animals.

They came across a number of diverse cousins of chlamydia between 0.1 and 9.4 meters below the seafloor, and found that the new species were closely related to the bacteria that cause infections in humans and other animals.

Bacteria 'exceptionally abundant'

While the authors didn't find other host organisms that the new chlamydia-related bacteria depended on to survive, they said that the species could be getting fuel from other microorganisms deep in the ocean sediment.

"Finding that Chlamydia have marine sediment relatives has given us new insights into how chlamydial pathogens evolved," Dharamshi said.

A team of international researchers made the discovery by collecting samples during a visit to Loki's Castle, a field of hydrothermal vents in the Arctic Ocean between Greenland, Iceland and Norway.

What makes this discovery particularly interesting, scientists said, is the environment in which the bacteria were found.

At a level so deep beneath the ocean's surface, there's almost no oxygen and extremely high pressure. But researchers said they found that the new species of bacteria were "exceptionally abundant" in this part of the ocean -- in some cases, they were even the dominant bacteria.

That could suggest that chlamydia and related bacteria play a much bigger role in marine ecology than previously known, researchers said.

For now, scientists don't know for sure what that role is. But this latest discovery signals that there could be more of these bacteria deep under the ocean's surface. And that might lead to some answers.

WHO Launches New Treatment Guidelines for Chlamydia

More than 1 million sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are acquired every day worldwide. STIs present a major burden of disease and negatively affect people’s well-being across the globe. Chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis are three STIs which are all caused by bacteria and which can potentially be cured by antibiotics. Unfortunately, these STIs often go undiagnosed and due to antibiotic resistance, they are also becoming increasingly difficult to treat.

WHO has today launched new treatment guidelines to help address this issue. Based on the latest available evidence, the guidelines share new recommendations on the most effective treatments for these curable sexually transmitted infections.

It is estimated that, each year, 131 million people are infected with chlamydia, 78 million with gonorrhoea, and 5.6 million with syphilis. Infection with STIs can have a significant and negative impact upon a person’s overall health and well-being. People infected with an STI may be at risk of stigma and abuse, in addition to further psycho-social consequences, such as a negative effect upon personal relationships.

In addition, when left undiagnosed and untreated, curable STIs can result in serious complications and long-term health problems. For women this can include pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage. Untreated gonorrhoea and chlamydia can cause infertility in both men and women. If a woman has an untreated STI while pregnant, this can infect the baby, and may result in stillbirth or newborn death. Infection with chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis can also increase a person’s risk of being infected with HIV by two to three times

Chlamydia is the most common bacterial STI and people with this infection are frequently co-infected with gonorrhoea. Symptoms of chlamydia include discharge and a burning feeling when urinating, but most people who are infected have no symptoms. Even when chlamydia is asymptomatic, it can damage the reproductive system.

WHO is calling on countries to start using the updated guidelines immediately, as recommended in the Global Health Sector Strategy for STIs (2016-2021) endorsed by governments at the World Health Assembly in May 2016. The new guidelines are also in line with the Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance, adopted by governments at the World Health Assembly in May 2015.

When used correctly and consistently, condoms are one of the most effective methods of protection against STIs.