The prevalence of Campylobacter in childhood diarrhoea in Enugu state of Nigeria.

This study was aimed at finding the prevalence rate of Campylobacter in childhood diarrhea in Enugu. The study covered a period of five years. All the specimens were set to come from children attending clinics in the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Nigeria. Five hundred and fourteen children (257 males and 257 females) within the age range of one and sixty months with diarrhea were investigated. All the stool specimens were processed for Campylobacter by microscopy and culture using the candle jar method. Out of the 514 stool samples, 43 (8.3%) were positive for Campylobacter and 40 (93%) of which were isolates of Carpylobacter jejuni. Patients aged 1-24 months (74.4% of positive cases) though not statistically significant (x2 = 2.032, df = 8, p = 0.9800) were more vulnerable to the infection. A high proportion of the patients with Campylobacter (74%) had RBC and WBC in stool. An even pattern of distribution of this was observed yearly throughout the period of study (x2 = 0.3019, df = 4, p = 0.9897). It is therefore recommended that Campylobacter should be looked for in stool samples of children with diarrhoea as it has now been found to be an important aetiologic agent of childhood diarrhoea in Enugu Nigeria.