Do koala bears have chlamydia?

Chlamydia is dormant in the koala’s system, as chicken pox is in ours if we have been exposed. Historically it is thought that chlamydia was a defence against overpopulation. These days chlamydia is activated by stress in koalas due to human activity, such as deforestation, urbanisation and domestic dogs. read more

Indeed koalas may have a thing or two to teach us. If the koala vaccine is successful, says Timms, it will act as a model for the development of a human chlamydia vaccine too. Ari Daniel Shapiro was reporting for The World and the PBS programme NOVA. read more

Early trials have found the vaccines effective at stopping koalas picking up the infection. They have also found that despite strains of chlamydia varying across the country, it is possible to develop a vaccine that combats this. And they have managed to make the vaccine administrable in one dose rather than three. “While the vaccine’s not perfect, we’re catching koalas all the time now. We should be vaccinating them now. read more