Septicaemia and meningitis with campylobacter fetus subspecies intestinalis

Two cases of infection with Campylobacter fetus subspecies intestinalis are reported. In a 46-year-old farmer the development of septicaemic campylobacteriosis with acute gastroenterocolitis was favoured by malnutrition due to chronic alcoholism. After treatment with erythromycin the patient recovered completely. The second patient, a 40-year-old worker with meningitis, recovered after combined streptomycin-erytro-mycin therapy. In both patients antibodies against homologous and reference strains of Campylobycter fetus subspecies intestinalis, serotype 1 (Mitscherlich) were demonstrated in titres ranging from 1:16 to 1:64 by type the complement-fixation test.