Incubation period:

1 to 11 days (usually 2 to 5 days)

Complications can include meningitis, urinary tract infections and possibly reactive arthritis (rare and almost always short-term).

Common clinical features:

Abdominal pain, profuse diarrhoea, malaise; vomiting is uncommon

Reservoir:

It is found in the gastrointestinal tract of birds (particularly poultry) and animals, cattle and domestic pets

Transmission:

Raw or undercooked meat (especially poultry), unpasteurised milk, bird-pecked milk on doorsteps, untreated water, and domestic pets with diarrhoea. Person to person if personal hygiene is poor.

Other relevant features:

The infective dose is relatively low but campylobacter does not multiply in food; food borne outbreaks are rare. Large outbreaks from raw and inadequately pasteurised milk and contaminated water supplies.

Occupational exposure when processing poultry in abattoirs may be implicated in some cases.Campylobacteriosis usually occurs in single, sporadic cases, but it can also occur in outbreaks, when a number of people become ill at one time. Most cases of Campylobacteriosis are associated with handling raw poultry or eating raw or undercooked poultry meat.

A very small number of Campylobacter organisms (fewer than 500) can cause illness in humans. Even one drop of juice from raw chicken meat can infect a person. One way to become infected is to cut poultry meat on a cutting board, and then use the unwashed cutting board or utensil to prepare vegetables or other raw or lightly cooked foods.

The Campylobacter organisms from the raw meat can then spread to the other foods. The organism is not usually spread from person to person, but this can happen if the infected person is a small child or is producing a large volume of diarrhoea. Larger outbreaks due to Campylobacter are not usually associated with raw poultry but are usually related to drinking unpasteurised milk or contaminated water.

Animals can also be infected, and some people have acquired their infection from contact with the infected stool of an ill dog or cat. Most people who get Campylobacteriosis recover completely within 2 to 5 days, although sometimes recovery can take up to 10 days. Rarely, some long-term consequences can result from a Campylobacter infection.

Some people may have arthritis following Campylobacteriosis; others may develop a rare disease that affects the nerves of the body beginning several weeks after the diarrhoeal illness. This disease, called Guillain-Barré syndrome, occurs when a person’s immune system is “triggered” to attack the body’s own nerves, and can lead to paralysis that lasts several weeks and usually requires intensive care.

It is estimated that approximately one in every 1000 reported Campylobacteriosis cases leads to Guillain-Barré syndrome.

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