Campylobacter jejuni enteritis in children.

Campylobacter jejuni has been recently recognized as a frequent cause of diarrheal disease in infants and children. To assess its importance as an enteric pathogen in this area, in our pediatric laboratory, campylobacter jejuni was isolated by selective culture from 35 out of 623 (5.6%) patients with a history of acute diarrhea between March 1981 to December 1981. The peak incidence was in the summer (from May to August), age ranged from 10 days to 8 years, with the high incidence in the very young children. The sex ratio of male to female was four : one. In general, Campylobacter enteritis is not a severe disease and not associated with dehydration. The most common signs were fever & frequent diarrhea. Most of the children recovered spontaneously on conservative management. The antibiograms for 30 strains showed that the Aminoglycosides, Chloramphenicol, Ampicillin, Erythromycin were the most effective drugs. Resistance to erythromycin was found in 13.4% of our series. This study shows campylobacter is the common cause of bacterial diarrhea in Taiwan.