With reliable
isolation and routine screening, Campylobacter species have
emerged as the leading
cause of acute bacterial enteritis.
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These are flagellated, comma-shaped, gram-negative
bacteria .
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Campylobacter Enteritis:
Campylobacter enteritis is acquired by eating improperly
cleaned and cooked food, usually poultry, contaminated by C. jejuni,
an organism that colonizes poultry.
In one study, C. jejuni was
cultured from the body cavities of more than half of fresh and frozen
chickens and turkeys in 10 major cities around the world.
C. jejuni,
like Salmonella, are enteroinvasive and produce a spectrum of
disease ranging from subclinical infection to severe dysentery.
Illness appears 2 to 5 days after ingestion of contaminated food and
lasts about 5 days.
Symptoms include abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea,
vomiting, fever, and myalgia.
Stools are malodorous and frequently bloody.
Inflammation involves the gastrointestinal tract from
jejunum to anus.
Most patients have colonic crypt abscesses and ulcers
resembling those in ulcerative colitis.
Microscopically, the small
bowel is edematous and hyperemic and is infiltrated with neutrophils,
lymphocytes, and plasma cells.
Comma-shaped organisms are seen in the
intestinal mucosa and lamina propria.
The disease is generally benign and self-limited.
Other pathological lesions
caused by C. jejuni :
Myocarditis
can be a rare but severe complication of infectious disease and should
be considered as a diagnosis in patients presenting with chest pain
and elevated cardiac enzymes in the absence of underlying coronary
disease. It can lead to
cardiomyopathy and
congestive heart failure.
There are only a few reported cases of myocarditis associated with
Campylobacter infection.
Infection with C.
jejuni often precedes the Guillain-Barre syndrome and is associated
with axonal degeneration, slow recovery, and severe residual
disability.
C.
fetus infection:
Another
species, C. fetus, is an infrequent but clinically important
opportunistic pathogen that causes localized infection as well as
sepsis.
The organism is an economically important cause of
septic abortion and infertility in sheep and cattle.
It has been isolated
from vaginal secretions of cows, from the prepuce and ejaculate of
bulls, and from the placenta and tissues of abortuses.
Cases of
spontaneous abortion and infertility in humans may thus be caused by C. fetus, especially in populations exposed to
livestock.
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