Culture of pathogenic campylobacter species at Mymensingh Medical College

Childhood diarrhea represents a major public health problem in developing countries, where campylobacteriosis is widespread and causes significant morbidity and mortality in infants and children. Despite the increasing importance of campylobacteriosis, most developing countries and even many developed countries do not have surveillance systems to measure the health and economic burden of human campylobacteriosis, nor detect trends in outbreaks. The present study was carried out to diagnose etiology of diarrhea caused by Campylobacter species. A total of 150 clinically diagnosed diarrheal pediatric patients were included in this study, of which 98(65.3%) were male and 52(34.6%) female from the Department of Pediatrics, Mymensingh Medical College Hospital, Mymensingh, Bangladesh from July 2011 to April 2012. Stool specimens were collected from each of the cases. The specimens were cultured in appropriate media and Campylobacters were isolated and identified by recommended tests. Among 150 cases, 17(11.3%) were culture positive for Campylobacter species, of which 15(88.2%) were C. jejuni and 02(11.7%) were C. coli. Of the cases, below 1 year of age group were 106(70.6%) cases showing 12(70.5%) positive for Campylobacters and 44(29.33%) cases were above 1 year of age group showing 05(29.41%) positive. The prevalence of Campylobacter infection found in the present study was higher below 1 year age group and was very much close to other countries of this subcontinent.