Infection with Chlamydia pneumoniae in infants and children with acute lower respiratory tract disease.

The role of Chlamydia pneumoniae in the etiology of acute lower respiratory tract infections in infants and children is little understood. We studied the prevalence of C. pneumoniae infection in hospitalized infants and children with acute lower respiratory tract disease by cell culture, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), enzyme immunoassay and serology. Of 290 patients with a mean age of 3.7 years, only 3 (1%) were identified to be infected with C. pneumoniae. One child was positive in the cell culture as well as the PCR assay. Another infant was PCR-positive only and serologic evidence of infection was observed in a culture- and PCR-negative child. Chlamydia trachomatis was not detected in any patient specimen by either culture or PCR. Results of this study indicate that C. pneumoniae plays a minor role in the etiology of respiratory tract infections in infants and young children.