Reducing suspicion of sexual abuse in paediatric chlamydial conjunctivitis using genotyping.

is a Gram-negative bacterium that causes urogenital tract infections, and ocular infections including trachoma, neonatal conjunctivitis and adult chlamydial inclusion conjunctivitis. A positive diagnosis in children often raises suspicions of sexual abuse. While outer membrane protein A () genotypes A-C are non-invasive and are associated with trachoma; genotypes D-K are often associated with sexually transmitted urogenital infections or sexually acquired chlamydial conjunctivitis. A 10-year-old female presented with a 7-month history of unilateral conjunctivitis with itching, watering and hyperaemia. She had recently moved from an urban centre in Afghanistan to the UK. A conjunctival swab taken from the child tested positive for Application of genotyping to conjunctival swab chlamydial DNA demonstrated that the had an genotype C. Chlamydial strains with this genotype cause trachoma and have never previously been associated with urogenital infection. This result supported cessation of child protection investigations.