Campylobacter diarrhoea and an association of recent disease with asymptomatic shedding in Egyptian children.

A hospital-based case-control diarrhoea survey was conducted in Cairo, Egypt to determine the age-specific frequency of campylobacter infection among diarrhoeic and non-diarrhoeic children aged new born to 5 years. Campylobacter was the most common bacterial enteropathogen isolated from diarrhoeic stools. The overall prevalence of campylobacter isolations was 25.9% from stools of 143 diarrhoeic children compared to 15.2% of 132 non-diarrhoeic control children (P = 0.028) during the 4-month period of study. Children less than 1 year of age were at greatest risk of campylobacter infection with 32.6% of diarrhoeic patients culture positive, compared to 14.3% of controls. Asymptomatic shedding in controls was positively associated with a recent diarrhoeal episode (P = 0.019) and may be an important source of new infections.