Yay Science!

[lederhosen]

Queensland University of Technology press release says a vaccine against one of the world's most common sexually-transmitted infections, chlamydia, may be available in three to five years. If they can achieve that, it'll save a lot of fertility treatments and more than a handful of lives; if it can be made cheap enough for worldwide use, it will also eliminate the most common cause of preventable blindness.

Obviously the usual suspects will complain bitterly about anything that might make sex safer, but stuff 'em, I'm pleased. We may not have defeated HIV yet, but substantial strides have been made just in my lifetime on HPV, Hep B, and now this.

Comments

[shadow-5tails.livejournal.com]

It would pretty much have to be a "point to one that does" case, I think. Chlamydia was a genus* with multiple species; the human STD, the feline one, the guinea-pig one, murine and porcine species, the koala one - chlamydia/chlamydophila pneumoniae, which also causes respiratory infections in humans and other issues for frogs, turtles, and iguanas - and the avian one responsible for psittacosis (which also causes lung disease in humans). Not all of them are sexually transmitted, which shouldn't surprise anyone given some of them are zoonotic - psittacosis in particular is a workplace hazard for veterinary types.

I trust you noted the "was" too. It's a source of ongoing amusement to me that around 1999, they reclassified a bunch of these into the genus Chlamydophila, leaving Chlamydia with only three species (the human, the murine and the porcine, if you're curious) - the change has been slow to propogate through the wider world, and I was vaguely surprised to hear it was so long ago, but I digress. The differentiation was made on the basis of genetic stuff, DNA coding and the like, but part of me gleefully suspects that it was partly to stop people freaking out when they heard that they or their pets had *gasp* Chlamydia! *giggle*

* - Actually, the family, order, and entire phylum derive their names from this genus.

** - I actually tested positive for in the last round of tests. I think I mentioned at the time that it was rather amusing - in hindsight - watching poor Asagwe freeze for a moment as the nutritionist flicked through my test results and commented "and you're positive for chlamydia..."