Campylobacter enterocolitis in New Orleans.
Campylobacter is being increasingly recognized as a common pathogen producing acute diarrheal illness. During 1981, all stool cultures at Charity Hospital were routinely screened for Campylobacter. Twenty-nine of 2,233 total cultures were positive. We performed a retrospective study to evaluate the disease's clinical picture and epidemiologic features. Campylobacter-positive cultures comprised 1.3% of all stool specimens and 21.6% of all positive cultures. Age, sex, and race in the Campylobacter group did not differ significantly from a comparison group. The distribution of the rates of Campylobacter-positive cultures did not show temporal trends. The clinical symptoms were nonspecific and the disease was usually self-limited, with diarrhea lasting from seven to ten days in untreated patients. The disease may occasionally be confused with a nonspecific inflammatory bowel disease. Thus, it is important that stool cultures be routinely screened for Campylobacter so that appropriate therapy can be administered.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D002169:Campylobacter Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002168:Campylobacter fetus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002415:Cats; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003093:Colitis, Ulcerative / Q000175:diagnosis; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000209:etiology; D004761:Enterocolitis, Pseudomembranous / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008145:Louisiana; D012007:Rectum / Q000382:microbiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012621:Seasons; D013997:Time Factors