[Presence of anti-Chlamydia antibodies in healthy children].

The role of Chlamydia trachomatis infection in children is not well known. It is established that Chlamydia trachomatis is a major etiology agent of conjunctivitis in newborns and pneumonia during the first 6 months of life but little is known about the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection in children in early infancy particularly in the Italian pediatric population. Therefore the incidence of anti-Chlamydial trachomatis antibodies in 400 asymptomatic children have been determined. The incidence is 18.39% in babies from 0 to 12 months of age, 10.95% from 1 to 3 years, 19.44% from 4 to 6 years, 16.98% from 7 to 9 years, 31.37% from 10 to 12 years. The highest incidence lies among school-age children and might indicate a nonsexual route of chlamydial infection.