Campylobacter enteritis in childhood.

Abstract

Bacteriological examinations of faecal samples, obtained from 321 infants and children with acute enteritis, were carried out in the pediatric clinic of the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan from January 1983 to December 1985. Campylobacter jejuni were isolated in 48 infants and children (15%), while Salmonella species in 6 (1.9%), and enteropathogenic Escherichia coli in 11 (3.4%). Of 48 infants and children with Campylobacter enteritis (C. enteritis), 20 cases (42%) were under 2 years old, 17 (35%) from 2 to 6 years old, 8 (17%) from 7 to 12 years old, and 3 (6%) above 13 years old, suggesting the higher incidence in the younger infants and children. There were 30 males and 18 females, male:female ratio of 5:3. No seasonal variations in the frequency of C. enteritis were noticed. Major symptoms were diarrhea (94%), fever (50%), bleeding in stools (44%), abdominal pain (31%), and vomiting (10%). All strains of C. jejuni were highly sensitive to gentamicin, amikacin, kanamycin, erythromycin, josamycin, and chloramphenicol. We also report two typically mild cases of C. enteritis, a newborn infant with monosymptomatic bleeding in stools and diarrhea, and another 11-month-old, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome infant with asymptomatic bloody stools.