Lack of association between long-term illness and infectious intestinal disease in New Zealand.

AIMS: To investigate whether the increase in notified cases of infectious intestinal disease in New Zealand from 1988 to 2001 has resulted in a concurrent increase in associated secondary illness cases.

METHODS

National surveillance system data were compared to hospital discharge data.

RESULTS

No statistically significant correlation between the number of cases of campylobacteriosis and Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) was found. There was no statistically significant correlation between the number of cases of campylobacteriosis, salmonellosis, shigellosis, and any of the categories of reactive arthritis; apart from two correlations with campylobacteriosis: with arthropathy associated with Reiter's disease and nonspecific urethritis (Pearson correlation R2=0.69; p<0.02) and unspecified infective arthritis (Pearson correlation R2=0.75; p<0.008). The later category is likely to include cases of both infective and non-infective aetiology.

CONCLUSION

In New Zealand, infectious intestinal diseases are not making a significant contribution to the burden of hospitalisation for reactive arthritis or GBS.