Epidemiologic and clinical features of endemic Campylobacter jejuni infection in Bangladesh.
Epidemiologic and clinical features of infection with Campylobacter jejuni in Bangladesh were examined in (1) diarrheal patients infected with C jejuni, (2) healthy control subjects, and (3) village children who were cultured monthly and at each diarrheal episode during a 10-month period. C jejuni was isolated from 437 (14%) of 3,038 outpatients with diarrhea. These patients had no distinct clinical presentation and were more likely to have a mixed infection than were patients infected with other pathogens (59% vs 42%, P less than 0.01). Age-specific infection rates were greatest in infants and did not differ significantly from those in control subjects. C jejuni was isolated less frequently from village children with diarrhea than from those cultured routinely (5% vs 9%, P less than 0.05). Forty percent of 47 patients with C jejuni vs 23% of 48 control subjects (P less than 0.01) had an elevated convalescent-phase antibody titer as determined by complement fixation test. In Bangladesh, enteric infection with C jejuni is common but often asymptomatic, although pathogenicity is suggested by serologic response in some patients.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001459:Bangladesh; D002167:Campylobacter / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D002169:Campylobacter Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D002168:Campylobacter fetus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000382:microbiology*; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant