Campylobacter enteritis. A 3-year experience.

Campylobacter jejuni was isolated from 135 infants and children seen at the Oklahoma Children's Memorial Hospital over a 3-year period. The comparative frequency of isolation of C. jejuni, Salmonella, and Shigella were 1.5 percent, 2.2 percent, and 3.1 percent, respectively. Campylobacter enteritis was most prevalent during the warm months from May to October, peaking in July. Seventy percent of the afflicted children were 2 years old or younger; only 13 percent were older than 5 years. There were the usual clinical presentations (acute onset of diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, and bloody stools) of Campylobacter enteritis, but other, less common, patterns also were seen. These included chronic diarrhea without significant systemic manifestations; asymptomatic bloody stools, particularly in neonates; and fever and abdominal pain without diarrhea. Severe complications included hemolytic-uremic syndrome, sepsis associated with septic arthritis and osteomyelitis, and failure to thrive.