Campylobacter enteritis in general practice

The incidence and clinical features of campylobacter enteritis were studied in a defined general practice population over a period of three years. Specimens of faeces were cultured from a representative sample of patients suffering from acute enteritis. Of 168 patients submitting a specimen to the laboratory 34 (20.2%) were positive for thermophilic Campylobacter species. The projected campylobacter infection rate varied from 5.4% per annum in infancy to 0.3% per annum in the 5- to 14-year-olds with a mean of 1.1% per annum for the whole study population. During the same period campylobacters were isolated from 484 (14.9%) of 3250 patients suffering from acute enteritis whose general practitioners had sent faecal specimens to the laboratory, confirming the importance of this organism in the aetiology of acute enteritis in the community.