Campylobacter jejuni

Aka: Campylobacter jejuni, Campylobacteriosis

II. Epidemiology

  1. Responsible for 5-14% of worldwide Diarrhea
  2. Very common in Southeast asia

III. Pathophysiology

  1. Natural Hosts: Wild birds and ducks
  2. Foodborne Illness
    1. Gastroenteritis (sporadic cases are common)
    2. Outbreaks (e.g. unpasteurized milk)
  3. Diseases caused by Campylobacter jejuni
    1. Traveler's Diarrhea
    2. Waterborne Illness

IV. Risk Factors

  1. Use of prophylactic antibiotics (Traveler's Diarrhea Prevention)

V. Labs

  1. Stool Culture
    1. Very difficult to culture
    2. Requires selective growth medium (Campy Blood Agar)
  2. Darkfield microscopy
  3. Phase contrast microscopy

VI. Symptoms

  1. Course
    1. Onset in 3-5 days
    2. Duration 2-10 days
  2. Prodrome
    1. Headache
    2. Myalgias
    3. Fever
    4. Abdominal Pain
  3. Symptoms vary
    1. Fever occurs in more than half of patients
    2. Mild cases: Asymptomatic excretion
    3. Severe cases: Dysentery (with bloody Diarrhea)
    4. Diarrhea is self limited in immunocompetent hosts

VII. Management: Antibiotics

  1. Antibiotic indications (longer course for immunocompromised patients)
    1. Dysentery (Inflammatory Diarrhea)
    2. Sepsis
    3. May be indicated in enteritis
  2. First-line agents
    1. Azithromycin (Zithromax) 500 mg orally daily for 3 days
    2. Treat for 14 days if associated with bacteremia (which is rare)
  3. Alternative agents
    1. Erythromycin 500 mg orally four times daily for 3 days
    2. Ciprofloxacin 500 mg orally twice daily for 5 days
      1. Fluoroquinolone (high resistance rate >50-85%)
  4. References
    1. (2016) Sanford Guide to Antimicrobial Therapy, accessed 5/7/2016

VIII. Complications

  1. Guillain-Barre Syndrome
  2. Reactive Arthritis

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Related Studies

Ontology: Campylobacter jejuni (C0006819)

Definition (NCI_CDISC) Any bacterial organism that can be assigned to the species Campylobacter jejuni.
Definition (NCI) A species of microaerophilic, Gram-negative, curved or spiral bacilli assigned to the phylum Proteobacteria. This species is motile with a flagellum at each pole, non-spore forming, oxidase positive, and hydrolyzes hippurate. C. jejuni is the most common pathogen in the United States causing bacterial diarrhea and gastroenteritis and is also linked to Guillain Barre syndrome.
Definition (MSH) A species of bacteria that resemble small tightly coiled spirals. Its organisms are known to cause abortion in sheep and fever and enteritis in man and may be associated with enteric diseases of calves, lambs, and other animals.
Concepts Bacterium (T007)
MSH D016123
SnomedCT 66543000
LNC LP17110-5
Swedish Campylobacter jejuni
Czech Campylobacter jejuni
Finnish Campylobacter jejuni
Croatian CAMPYLOBACTER JEJUNI
English campylobacter jejuni, campylobacter jejuni organism, Campylobacter jejuni (Jones et al. 1931) Veron and Chatelain 1973, Campylobacter fetus subsp. jejuni, Vibrio hepaticus, Vibrio jejuni, CAMPYLOBACTER JEJUNI, Campylobacter fetus ss. jejuni, Campylobacter jejuni (organism), Campylobacter jejuni
Polish Campylobacter jejuni
Norwegian Campylobacter jejuni
Spanish Campylobacter fetus, subespecie jejuni, Campylobacter jejuni (organismo), Campylobacter jejuni
French Campylobacter jejuni
German Campylobacter jejuni
Italian Campylobacter jejuni
Russian CAMPYLOBACTER JEJUNI
Dutch Campylobacter jejuni
Portuguese Campylobacter jejuni
Derived from the NIH UMLS (Unified Medical Language System)

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