Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:54:58.695Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A one-year survey of campylobacter enteritis and other forms of bacterial diarrhoea in Hong Kong

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2009

B. S. W. Ho
Affiliation:
Department of Microbiology, Queen Mary Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong
W. T. Wong
Affiliation:
Department of Microbiology, Queen Mary Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The following enteropathogens were isolated from the faeces of 769 (10·2%) of 7,545 patients of whom 5,704 had diarrhoea or abdominal pain, attending a teaching hospital in Hong Kong during one year: salmonellae 458 (6·1%); Vibrio parahaemolyticus 125 (1·7%); campylobacters 108 (1·4%); shigellae 83 (1·1%); others 19 (0·3 %). Further identification of the campylobacter isolates showed that 63 (58%) were Campylobacter jejuni biotype 1, 44 (41%) were C. coli and only one was C. jejuni biotype 2. Seventy-five (69%) of the 108 campylobacters were isolated from children under two years of age, mostly during the second year of life. Faecal specimens from 1,841 children under the age of two years without gastrointestinal symptoms yielded almost the same percentages of salmonellae, campylobacters and shigellae as children with diarrhoea.

Salmonellae, shigellae and vibrios were isolated most often in the hot late summer months (August to October), but, contrary to the pattern in Europe and North America, both C. jejuni and C. coli were most prevalent in the coolest months of the year (January to March). The reasons for this ‘reversed’ trend are unknown.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

References

REFERENCES

Billingham, J. D. (1981). Campylobacter enteritis in the Gambia. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 75, 641644.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blaser, M. J., Taylor, D. N. & Feldman, R. A. (1983). Epidemiology of Campylobacter jejuni infections. Epidemiologic Reviews 5, 157176.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cameron, S., Roder, D. & White, C. (1982). Population-based comparative study of campylobacter and salmonella enteritis in South Australia. The Medical Journal of Australia 2, 176177.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glass, R. I., Stoll, B. J., Huq, M. I., Struelens, M. J., Blaser, M. & Kibriya, K. M. G. (1983). Epidemiologic and clinical features of endemie Campylobacter jejuni infection in Bangladesh. The Journal of Infectious Diseases 148, 202206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGechie, D. B., Teoh, T. B. & Bamford, V. W. (1982). Campylobacter enteritis in Hong Kong and Western Australia. In Campylobacter: Epidemiology, Pathogenesis and Biochemistry (ed. Newell, D. G.), pp. 1021. Lancaster: MTP Press.Google Scholar
Richardson, N. J., Koornhof, H. J., Bokkenheuser, V. D., Mayet, Z. & Rosen, E. U. (1983). Age related susceptibility to Campylobacter jejuni infection in a high prevalence population. Archives of Disease in Childhood 58, 616619.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shmilovitz, M., Kretzer, B. & Rotman, N. (1982). Campylobacter jejuni as an etiological agent of diarrhoeal diseases in Israel. Israel Journal of Medical Science 18, 935940.Google ScholarPubMed
Skirrow, M. B. (1982). Campylobacter enteritis – the first five years. Journal of Hygiene, 89, 175184.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Skirrow, M. B. & Benjamin, J. (1980). Differentiation of enteropathogenic campylobacter. Journal of Clinical Pathology 33, 1122.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed