March 2005

Hazards of Healthy Living: Bottled Water and Salad Vegetables as Risk Factors for Campylobacter Infection
Meirion R. Evans, C. Donald Ribeiro, and Roland L. Salmon
University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff, United Kingdom; Cardiff Public Health Laboratory, Cardiff, United Kingdom; and Public Health Laboratory Service Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (Wales), Cardiff, United Kingdom
Campylobacter is the most common cause of bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide, yet the etiology of this infection remains only partly explained. In a retrospective cohort study, we compared 213 sporadic campylobacter case-patients with 1,144 patients with negative fecal samples. Information was obtained on food history, animal contact, foreign travel, leisure activities, medical conditions, and medication use. Eating chicken, eating food from a fried chicken outlet, eating salad vegetables, drinking bottled water, and direct contact with cows or calves were all independently associated with infection. The population-attributable fractions for these risk factors explained nearly 70% of sporadic campylobacter infections. Eating chicken is a well-established risk factor, but consuming salad and bottled water are not. The association with salad may be explained by cross-contamination of food within the home, but the possibility that natural mineral water is a risk factor for campylobacter infection could have wide public health implications.Continue Reading Research: Campylobacter

By Peter Curson
October 14, 2004
Most of us have experienced a bout of food poisoning: an episode of stomach pain or upset often associated with diarrhoea and in some cases vomiting. Such encounters are usually inconsequential, of limited duration and rarely do we think to bother our general practitioner with them. Most of us assume it’s something we have eaten or drunk, shrug it off and get on with our lives. Minor bouts of upset stomachs have become so common as to be something we all expect to experience sooner or later, and we rarely question their origin.Continue Reading Who Ordered the Food Poisoning?

by Audrey Hingley
When it comes to food poisoning, big outbreaks make headlines. E. coli in apple juice and alfalfa sprouts. Listeria in cheese and hot dogs. Salmonella in eggs and on poultry. But the most frequently diagnosed food-borne bacterium rarely makes the news. The name of the unsung bug? Campylobacter.
“Most Campylobacter infections are sporadic and not associated with an outbreak, but we know it causes up to 4 million human infections a year,” says Frederick J. Angulo, D.V.M., an epidemiologist with the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Federal and state health experts have long recognized that Campylobacter causes disease in animals. Conclusive proof that the bacteria also causes human disease emerged in the 1970s, and by 1996, Campylobacter was sitting atop the bacterial heap as the number one cause of all domestic food-borne illness. (See “Tracking Down Trouble: Bacteria That Cause Food-Borne Illness.”)Continue Reading Campylobacter: Low-Profile Bug Is Food Poisoning Leader

Campylobacter is not the only thing that triggers Guillain-BarrÈ syndrome, but it is now recognized as one of the disorder’s major forerunners. Guillain-BarrÈ, which also may follow a viral illness, is an autoimmune attack on the peripheral nerves that can cause weakness and paralysis. Annually, about two people per 100,000 contract the syndrome.
“We also…