A community study on the aetiology of childhood diarrhoea with special reference to Campylobacter jejuni in a semiurban slum of Varanasi, India.

In a community study of 607 diarrhoeal and 529 non-diarrhoeal (control) patients less than 5 years old carried out between August 1988 and July 1989, the Campylobacter jejuni isolation rate was 4% in the diarrhoeal and 0.9% in the control group. It was the second most common bacterial enteropathogen isolated after Escherichia coli. Its incidence was more common among 1-2 year old children (4.8%) and during rainy season (July-October). Features of dysentery were absent in C. jejuni diarrhoea. Findings strongly suggest its aetiological role in childhood diarrhoea. Among other enteropathogens in diarrhoeal specimens, rotavirus was the commonest (16.4%) followed by enterotoxigenic E. coli (13.8%), G. lamblia (10.3%), enteropathogenic E. coli (7.0%), E. histolytica (5.0%), Cryptosporidium (3.8%), H. nana spp. (1.5%), NAG vibrios (0.5%), P. shigelloides (0.5%), V. mimicus and Salmonella spp. (0.3%). Approximately one quarter of the stool specimens (22.6%, 256/1136) tested were positive for the ova of A. lumbricoides.