Question

Which of the following statements is TRUE regarding Chlamydia?

• A. Culture of endocervical discharge can be used for isolation of the organism
• B. Patients using OCPs are at higher risk for Chlamydia infection
• C. Most genital Chlamydia infections are asymptomatic
• D. Penicillin is the drug of choice

Hint:

It is an obligate intracellular organism that usually causes silent infection.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

Step 1: Recall the biology of Chlamydia trachomatis. It is an obligate intracellular bacterium and a leading cause of sexually transmitted genital infection.
Step 2: Evaluate the clinical course. The hallmark of genital chlamydial infection is that the MAJORITY of cases are asymptomatic, especially in women, which allows silent transmission and complications such as PID, tubal infertility, and ectopic pregnancy. This statement is TRUE.
Step 3: Test the other options against this. Because it is obligately intracellular, Chlamydia does NOT grow on ordinary culture of discharge, it requires cell culture (or, in practice, nucleic acid amplification tests), so the simple endocervical discharge culture statement is false.
Step 4: Drug of choice. The treatment of choice is azithromycin (single dose) or doxycycline, NOT penicillin, because Chlamydia lacks a conventional peptidoglycan cell wall target; so that option is false.
Step 5: OCP risk. OCP use is not the recognised key risk factor; chlamydial infection relates chiefly to sexual behaviour and young age (though cervical ectopy is debated), so that statement is not the best answer.
Step 6: Apply the recall-key note. The printed key marks option B (OCP), but that is medically incorrect; the medically correct TRUE statement is that most genital chlamydial infections are asymptomatic. Answer corrected to option 3.
Hence the answer is that most genital Chlamydia infections are asymptomatic.