[Campylobacter enteritis in 0-5-year-old children in the Eindhoven area - and epidemiological study].

In the region Eindhoven 36 children with Campylobacter-enteritis were examined from I January 1980 to 31 December 1980. Symptoms were studied and stools were cultured over a four-month period. Abdominal pain and/or diarrhea occurred in more than 90% of patients and were not infrequently of longer duration. Bloody stools were found in 58% of patients and disappeared relatively early during the time of illness, as well as fever and vomiting. After one month Campylobacter could only be cultured in 5% of children; 14 household contacts, who proved to have Campylobacter-enteritis, had also negative stool cultures after one month. Asymptomatic carriership was found in four cases among these household contracts. Campylobacter fetus subspecies jejuni could not be isolated in stools of a number of asymptomatic individuals, working in the meat industry, who were considered to have a higher risk of infection. This group could therefore not be determined as an endogenous human reservoir. On the other hand Campylobacter was isolated in a few domestic animals without symptoms of illness, as well as in some cattle stables and sites. In these places, where several contaminated animals are together, significant reservoirs for human infection may be present.