A 16 year old girl presents with a history of fever, severe abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea. She has been on a fad diet recently that requires her to eat lots of unpasteurized yogurt. She reports that the diarrhea has changed in appearance over the past few days. Originally, it was watery and foul-smelling.
Labs: Gram negative curved rods and PMNs in stool.
Discussion: Infection presents with fever, watery/bloody stools, abdominal pain and cramping. Diagnosis is made by stool culture, presence of PMNs in the stool and clinical history. It is one of the most common causes of diarrhea. It begins as watery, foul-smelling diarrhea. The later stages of the infection present with bloody diarrhea, fever and severe abdominal pain. It is passed from animals to humans via the fecal-oral. It can also contaminate milk, water and some foods. Campylobacter jejuni is associated with Guillain-Barre syndrome. The infection may cause systemic infections in rare cases.
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