[Campylobacter enteritis in Western Sicily. Remarks on 35 cases].
BACKGROUND
Campylobacter spp is the main cause of bacterial gastroenteritis in the developed countries, resulting mainly from the contamination of poultry and animal products. Pathogenesis remains unclear. Various clinical features ranging from watery diarrhoea in apyrexia to dysentery in hyperpyrexia may be the result of differences between strains in the expression of different pathogenetic factors. There are many difficulties in isolating the bacteria in question.


METHODS
We processed 540 faecal specimens of children with gastroenteritis. We detected enteropathogen bacteria including Campylobacter spp as well as Rotavirus, Adenovirus and protozoans. For the isolation of Campylobacter we employed the filter membrane technique. The filtrate was plated onto non-selective agar (blood-agar) in microaerophilic atmosphere.


RESULTS
The rank order of isolation frequency was: Rotavirus (30.0%), Salmonella (18.5%), Adenovirus (12.6%), Campylobacter (6.5%), Shigella (1.1%), Giardia (0.6%). The Campylobacter strains belonged to C.jejuni in 31 cases and C. coli in 4 cases. The clinical features were: fever (80%), vomitus (31,4%) and diarrhoea in all cases (watery diarrhoea (25.7%), stools more compact with mucus and blood (57.1%) or with mucus alone (17.1%)).


CONCLUSIONS
In Western Sicily Campylobacter spp is the second most common agent of bacterial enteritis. We believe that some procedural errors, such as the employment of excessively selective media, could be the cause of the past failure to isolate Campylobacter.
Scarlata
Francesco
F
Istituto di Patologia Infettiva e Virologia, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
Titone
Lucina
L
Li Vecchi
Valentina
V
Arena
Rosanna
R
Bruno
Alessandra
A
Merlino
Francesca
F
Di Bernardo
Francesca
F
D002167:Campylobacter / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D002169:Campylobacter Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004751:Enteritis / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007558:Italy