[Survey of Campylobacter jejuni/coli infection and risk factors in children].

From March to May 1987, 798 children under 7 years of the outpatients in Chengdu district were examined and their stool samples cultured for Campylobacter jejuni/coli. C. jejuni/coli was isolated from 31 (9.51%) of 326 children with diarrhea and 22 (4.66%) of 472 children with non-diarrhea. The difference was significant (P less than 0.05). This result indicated that C. jejuni/coli is an important pathogen of children diarrhea in Chengdu district. Meanwhile, by inquiry we investigated risk factors related with C. jejuni/coli infections. Case group was consisted of 53 children with C. jejuni/coli positive. For each case, 3 controls were chosen from 745 children with C. jejuni/coli negative and matched according to age (less than 6 month), sex, living place (city or countryside), way of feeding, and whether to have diarrhea or not. The results has shown that contact with animals a week before being ill and habit of intake of food with hands are risk factors of C. jejuni/coli infection of childhood in Chengdu, with an odd ratio of 2.97 and 2.71 respectively. This provides valuable information about the prevention of C. jejuni/coli infection.