title: Experience with the microbiologic diagnosis of Campylobacter enteritis in an office laboratory.
abstract: Campylobacter jejuni has been recognized as a frequent cause of bacterial diarrhea in infants and children. C. jejuni is a fastidious, Gram-negative, comma-shaped or sea gull-shaped, curved rod which is capable, particularly during the summer months, of causing slimy mucoid, blood diarrhea, abdominal pain and fever. In our pediatric office laboratory we found over a 12-month period that 14 (10%) of 126 stool specimens contained this pathogen. All but two children were diagnosed during the late spring and summer. There was no common source for Campylobacter infections in the patients. In 8 (66%) of 12 patients, C. jejuni infection was immediately detected by examining a 1% aqueous basic fuchsin-stained stool smear. Uncontrolled observations from this study suggest that erythromycin therapy, if started within 2 to 3 days of the onset of illness, is clinically effective.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002167:Campylobacter / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002169:Campylobacter Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004917:Erythromycin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007753:Laboratories; D008297:Male; D010824:Physicians' Offices; D012621:Seasons
chemical_list: D004917:Erythromycin