Scientists in America say that clinical trials have lead them to think a mixture of antibiotics could successfully treat chlamydia-induced arthritis.

The trials, sponsored by the National Institutes of Wellness, saw 42 patients with chlamydia-induced arthritis split into 3 treatment groups. The patients had been either given rifampin and doxycycline, rimfampin and azithromycin or a placebo.

The team had been hopeful that by treating patients with two antibiotics, they could target both pathways that enable the chlamydia infection to persist in the joints.

Writing in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism, they explained “combining this impact (of rifampin) with antibiotics that block chlamydial protein synthesis (e.g., doxycycline or azithromycin) could permit for effective eradication of the cell harboring persistently infecting intracellular organisms,”

The results showed that those patients who received mixture antibiotics saw their symptoms, such as swelling and tenderness in their joints, significantly increase. 63% of patients said that the combination treatment resulted in improvement of at least 20% to their condition following 6 months, compared to only 20% of those taking the placebo.

Even far more excitingly, 22% of the patients taking the antibiotics reported that their condition went into complete remission, although on average patients had been suffering from it for 8.five years.

Chlamydia is 1 of the principal causes of reactive arthritis, or Reiter’s syndrome. It is a disorder of the autoimmune syndrome, which develops as a response to the presence of infection elsewhere in the body.

Chlamydia is 1 of the most typical sexually transmitted infections in the world and especially in the west, wellness professionals are desperately trying to slow down the rate of infection. In the UK, those regarded as to be in at-risk groups are provided chlamydia tests. Chlamydia tests are recommended at least when a year for the sexually active.

Typically, when well being authorities attempt to educate about the dangers of chlamydia they focus on the possibility it could develop into pelvic inflammatory disease, which itself can cause fertility in women. Men tend be less concerned about experiencing any long-term problems, maybe why authorities locate it harder to encourage males to get a chlamydia test – numerous are unaware that the infection can trigger chronic arthritis.

Chlamydia is unlikely to have long-term wellness implications such as arthritis if it is treated early on, hence the push for folks to get chlamydia tests often.

The results of the study make it the first blind study to show that chronic chlamydia-induced arthritis could be managed with combined antibiotics. The team concluded, “Even though instances of acute [reactive arthritis] frequently remit spontaneously, the truth that all of the patients in this study had disease duration of at least six months …makes it incredibly unlikely that their [arthritis] would boost or resolve spontaneously.”

Nonetheless, the number of patients who improved under the treatment suggests that  “an avenue of successful therapy” has been discovered for patients with chronic arthritis that does not respond to disease-modifying drugs or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents.

They scientists concluded, “Thus, a cure theoretically exists.”