Clinical manifestations of campylobacter concisus infection in children

BACKGROUND: There is only sparse information about the clinical impact of Campylobacter concisus infections in children. METHODS: A study was performed during a 2-year period to determine the clinical manifestations in C. concisus-positive children with gastroenteritis. A case patient was defined as a child or teenager (<18 years) with a C. concisus-positive stool sample during the study period. Clinical data were obtained with use of a questionnaire study supplemented with the patients' medical records. The clinical manifestations in these patients were compared with those of patients with Campylobacter jejuni/coli infection. RESULTS: Two thousand three hundred seventy-two diarrheic stool samples from 1867 children were cultured for pathogenic enteric bacteria during the study period, and 85 and 109 children with C. concisus and C. jejuni/coli, respectively, were identified. Comparison of the acute clinical manifestations in 44 C. concisus patients with those in 64 C. jejuni/coli patients showed a significantly lower prevalence of fever, chills and blood in stools in the former. However, half of C. concisus patients compared with one-fourth of C. jejuni/coli patients had prolonged diarrhea for more than 2 weeks and two-thirds of all children with C. concisus reported loose stools after 6-month follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: C. concisus infection in children seems to have a milder course of acute gastroenteritis compared with C. jejuni/coli infection but is associated with more prolonged diarrhea. Children with C. concisus have the same degree of late gastrointestinal complaints as children diagnosed with C. jejuni/coli infection.