[Comparative study of Salmonella and Campylobacter infections in Huesca. 1996-1999]

The Salmonella and Campylobacter genera are the main bacterial agents causing enteritis in humans in the developed countries. The purpose of this paper is to study the descriptive characteristics of the cases of infection by Salmonella and by Campylobacter and to describe their trend and seasonal variance in the province of Huesca for the 1996-1999 period.

The sources of information were the Hospital Microbiological Laboratories (HML's) which conduct coproculture analyses of both outpatients and inpatients. The municipality is taken as the reference unit for plotting the space distribution. For the study of the trend, a multiplicative determinist model is used for grouping the data into four-week periods.

A total of 781 cases of infection by Salmonella and 654 cases of infection by Campylobacter have been included, respectively showing mean annual rates of 95 and 79.5 x 10(5) inhabitants. The enteritis by Campylobacter occurs mainly in children under five years of age (73.4%), as compared to the 35.5% of the cases of salmonellosis. The situation is the reverse in the case of the hospital admission percentages, hospitalization due to salmonellosis hence being nearly five times greater. Both of these genera are of a clear-cut seasonal nature, showing a marked peak in the month of August.

A growing trend in the number of positive isolations for both of these organisms and a clear seasonality in the summertime have been found.