title: Lack of association between long-term illness and infectious intestinal disease in New Zealand.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether the increase in notified cases of infectious intestinal disease in New Zealand from 1988 to 2001 has resulted in a concurrent increase in associated secondary illness cases.
  
  
  METHODS
  National surveillance system data were compared to hospital discharge data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No statistically significant correlation between the number of cases of campylobacteriosis and Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) was found. There was no statistically significant correlation between the number of cases of campylobacteriosis, salmonellosis, shigellosis, and any of the categories of reactive arthritis; apart from two correlations with campylobacteriosis: with arthropathy associated with Reiter's disease and nonspecific urethritis (Pearson correlation R2=0.69; p<0.02) and unspecified infective arthritis (Pearson correlation R2=0.75; p<0.008). The later category is likely to include cases of both infective and non-infective aetiology.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In New Zealand, infectious intestinal diseases are not making a significant contribution to the burden of hospitalisation for reactive arthritis or GBS.
authors.affiliation: Christchurch Science Centre, Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) Ltd, Christchurch, New Zealand. rob.lake@esr.cri.nz
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lake
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.forename: Carolyn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nichol
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Garrett
mesh_terms: D001170:Arthritis, Infectious / Q000453:epidemiology; D016918:Arthritis, Reactive / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002169:Campylobacter Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D016123:Campylobacter jejuni / Q000302:isolation & purification; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015897:Comorbidity; D018563:Disease Notification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004403:Dysentery / Q000453:epidemiology; D004405:Dysentery, Bacillary / Q000453:epidemiology; D020275:Guillain-Barre Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006463:Hemolytic-Uremic Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007410:Intestinal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009520:New Zealand / Q000453:epidemiology; D011159:Population Surveillance