Cohort study of intestinal infection with campylobacter in Mexican children.
A cohort of 179 children under 5 years of age from a low-income urban community was followed up for a year to determine the incidence of symptom-producing and of diarrhoea-free campylobacter intestinal infections, and thus their illness-to-infection ratio. 66% of all children had at least one campylobacter infection, one-third of these being associated with diarrhoea. The annual incidence of all campylobacter infections was 2.1 episodes per child. The incidence was inversely related to age (r = -0.78 p less than 0.02). The illness-to-infection ratio, which in infants younger than 6 months was 1:2, was negatively associated with age (r = -0.7, p less than 0.02). Only symptom-producing infections occurring early in life seemed to protect against subsequent infections.
D000367:Age Factors; D002169:Campylobacter Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002168:Campylobacter fetus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000382:microbiology*; D003968:Diarrhea, Infantile / Q000382:microbiology; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007410:Intestinal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008800:Mexico; D011446:Prospective Studies