PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - M. A. Karmali AU - P. C. Fleming TI - Campylobacter enteritis DP - 1979 Jun 23 TA - Canadian Medical Association Journal PG - 1525--1532 VI - 120 IP - 12 4099 - http://www.cmaj.ca/content/120/12/1525.short 4100 - http://www.cmaj.ca/content/120/12/1525.full SO - CMAJ1979 Jun 23; 120 AB - Campylobacter jejuni/coli has recently become recognized as a common bacterial cause of diarrhea. Infection can occur at any age. The usual incubation period of campylobacter enteritis is 2 to 5 days. Fever, diarrhea and abdominal pain are the most common clinical features. The stools frequently contain mucus and, a few days after the onset of symptoms, frank blood. Significant vomiting and dehydration are uncommon. A rapid presumptive laboratory diagnosis may be made during the acute phase of the illness by direct phase-contrast microscopy of stools. Isolation of the organism from stools requires culture in a selective medium containing antibiotics and incubation under reduced oxygen tension at 42 degrees C. The organism persists in the stools of untreated patients for up to 7 weeks following the onset of symptoms. Erythromycin may produce a rapid clinical and bacteriologic cure, and should be used to treat moderately to severely ill patients as well as patients with compromised host defences. The emergence of erythromycin-resistant strains requires close monitoring. The epidemiologic aspects of campylobacter enteritis will be fully understood only when methods become available for differentiating strains of C. jejuni/coli. The historical background and current knowledge of campylobacter enteritis are reviewed in this paper.