Campylobacter enterocolitis in New Orleans

Campylobacter is being increasingly recognized as a common pathogen producing acute diarrheal illness. During 1981, all stool cultures at Charity Hospital were routinely screened for Campylobacter. Twenty-nine of 2,233 total cultures were positive. We performed a retrospective study to evaluate the disease's clinical picture and epidemiologic features. Campylobacter-positive cultures comprised 1.3% of all stool specimens and 21.6% of all positive cultures. Age, sex, and race in the Campylobacter group did not differ significantly from a comparison group. The distribution of the rates of Campylobacter-positive cultures did not show temporal trends. The clinical symptoms were nonspecific and the disease was usually self-limited, with diarrhea lasting from seven to ten days in untreated patients. The disease may occasionally be confused with a nonspecific inflammatory bowel disease. Thus, it is important that stool cultures be routinely screened for Campylobacter so that appropriate therapy can be administered.