Campylobacter Gastroenteritis

Campylobacter Gastroenteritis General Information

Campylobacter is a spiral motile bacterium, with unipolar or bipolar flagella. Many species, more exactly 10 out of 20, can cause human diseases, and the most common are C. jejuni and C. coli. Some of these gram-negative bacilli species get to the digestive tract and cause different infections. In extremely rare cases they even affect other organs. The bacterium lives in the digestive tract of some domestic animals. The most common disease caused is Campylobacter Gastroenteritis and people get it by consuming unpasteurized milk, undercooked poultry, contaminated meat from the infected animals or drinking the water that has been contaminated by the feces of the animals that have the bacteria. The animals are usually healthy, although they carry the bacterium in their feces, and then spread it to humans. Gastroenteritis represents the inflammation that occurs in the gastrointestinal tract, especially in the small intestine and in the stomach. Campylobacter Gastroenteritis appears in people, who are traveling very often to countries that are still developing, causing them intense diarrhea. This is why is very important to handle safely the food and to do the hand wash in order to prevent Campylobacter Gastroenteritis. In some more rare cases, the bacteria enter the bloodstream where it leads to another infection, called bacteremia. This condition usually develops in patients who already suffer from other diseases, for example types of cancer or diabetes. Only when Campylobacter arrives into the bloodstream, the illness has the possibility to spread to other major organs. This disease is very much reported in Wales and in England.

Campylobacter Gastroenteritis Symptoms

The symptoms usually manifest three to six days after the person got infected with the respective bacteria. Campylobacter Gastroenteritis affects all the persons, no matter what their age is, although it has been observed that this disease appears more often in small children who are under six years old than it does in the case of elderly patients, adults or young adults. The symptoms that characterize Campylobacter Gastroenteritis become more severe when the disease occurs in people who already suffer from another medical condition or in elderly people. Some of the most common symptoms and signs specific for this disease are: stomach cramps, nausea accompanied by vomiting, pain felt in the abdominal area, or diarrhea that can be either mild or severe. We must precise that the diarrhea may contain marks of blood or mucous. The patients may also develop fever around 95 to 110o F. Except the problems observed in the digestive tract, the fever that will come and go can be sometimes the only other sign for this illness. The infection with Campylobacter bacteria may present some additional systemic symptoms. Some examples may be: enlargement of the spleen or liver, red, swollen joints that may sometimes cause pain. In some very rare cases, this infection may reach the heart valves, leading to endocarditis and to the tissues that cover the spinal cord and the brain, causing another condition, known as meningitis. This infection is transmitted from person to person only if the hands are not washed properly after going to the toilet.

Campylobacter Gastroenteritis Treatment

If you present any of the symptoms listed above, then we advise you to rapidly contact your physician and ask him or her to put you to a medical consultation. It is very important for your health and for the others around you to inform your doctor about your medical condition as soon as you observe any abnormal changes. Apart from your personal doctor, you can visit the local council’s department for health or the Department of Human Services. To be able to determine whether you are suffering from Campylobacter Gastroenteritis, the specialist will need some of your stool samples for testing. The sample must be sent for culture to isolate the potentially existing organism. Even if the test shows negative results, the cultures must be continually tested because most tests become positive after a couple of weeks. If this examination shows that you are infected with these bacteria, you will be sent to a specialist that will give you the best pieces of advice and recommend you the adequate treatment. When the doctor will examine you, he will look for the characteristic signs and symptoms of Campylobacter Gastroenteritis. He may want to find out more about the temperature of your body and will want to feel your abdomen because it may be diffusely tender. The entire examination must be carefully done because there is the possibility to confuse Campylobacter Gastroenteritis with ulcerative colitis or pseudomembranous colitis. Diarrhea can be treated sometimes without knowing the exact cause of the infection. This is why many people feel better only after a couple of weeks without an exact treatment. But there are patients who might need extra fluids that are given to them either by mouth or IV (intravenously). You must consider rehydrating yourself (by the oral normal route) as a vital factor during any therapy. When the infection gets into the bloodstream, the patients will require therapies with antibiotics, such as azithromycin or ciprofloxacin. When dealing with Campylobacter Gastroenteritis it is very important to avoid antimotility drugs because they usually prolong the disease and may have fatal effects. Antibiotics are very useful drugs because they can easily lower down the fever, may solve the problem of the bloody diarrhea and the “more than five stools per day” issue. They are usually administrated when the health condition of the patients gets worse and in the case when he fells sick for more than ten days. In the case of Campylobacter Gastroenteritis, antibiotics can eliminate very rapidly the bacterium from the stools. But if this microorganism is acquired from animals, it may be more resistant to antibiotics. Azithromycin proved to be very efficient in fighting with this disorder. New studies consider probiotics and lactobacilli important elements against this form of gastroenteritis. This disease can be easily prevented by washing your hands properly before you handle food, especially with hot running water and antibacterial soap, by cleaning as often as you can the bathrooms and other places, by trying to not share your towels or other personal objects with infected persons. If you know you are infected you might have to stop going to work.