The changing patterns of Campylobacter jejuni/coli in Lagos, Nigeria after ten years

One hundred and forty-five stool samples from children with diarrhoea at various health centres in Lagos were investigated for Campylobacter jejuni/coli. These organisms were isolated from 24 samples (16.5%). They were later biotyped as 23 C. jejuni and one C. coli. Previous studies (3,6) recorded isolation rates of 5.2% and 11% respectively. No Campylobacter species was isolated from 100 control patients who did not have diarrhoea. Diarrhoea due to Campylobacter jejuni/coli is still common in males, and the ration of males to females is still 2:1 but the isolation rate is now 11.7%:4.8%. All the isolates of Campylobacter jejuni are still from children under two years of age. Campylobacter jejuni biotype 1 accounted for 52.5% in an earlier study (18), but accounted for 87.5% in this study. Serogroup 29(70.8%) was the commonest in this study, whereas serogroup 36(20.7%) was very common in an earlier study(18). Erythromycin, which is the drug of choice for the treatment of campylobacter enteritis, had 82% sensitivity to the organism(6) but in the present study only 20.8% of the isolates were sensitive to the antibiotic. Betalactamase production was detected in 12.5% of the isolates as against 6.4% earlier reported(17).