Campylobacter jejuni

[Guest guest]

Hi Dawn

At the hospital where I work, they always do a sensitivity when they find

Campy to see what antibiotics it's susceptible to. From that I'd assume it is

treated since we only get stool cultures on people who are having problems.

It's not part of a normal work-up.

It doesn't cause arthritis per se, but like salmonella, it's thought to

initiate changes that lead to the production of autoantibodies. From the

results of a few recent studies, this is most likely to happen when one gets

re-infected after having it before. I think I'd push for treatment and insist

that follow-up cultures are negative.

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone!

As most people here have heard me tell (whinge!) - I have had upper left

quadrant, digestive and IBS type gut problems for two and a half years or so

and never really got anywhere in all my investigations.

It's still inconclusive, but I finally got a lab analysis (of pooh - sorry

everyone!) which tells me that they isolated Campylobacter jejuni in there -

I feel like they have struck gold after all this time with " normal " results.

My doc. says it is a bacterial infection that usually goes away after a few

days without treatment, but I am wondering if it is actually able to survive

up there in your gut and cause all the bloating, burping farting and nausea

and pain that I have been having.

You usually get really bad food poisoning with it, but I have felt pretty

much the same as I always do - or more accurately, at the time when I took

the stool sample for analysis, it was a familiar part of the persistent,

very local (always in the same spot in my body) pain that has waxed and

waned over the last two odd years.

All I know about this is what is on the lab report, which reads as follows:

" MICROBIOLOGICAL EXAMINATION: FAECES

Macroscopic: well formed Brown

Microscopic: A few white cells. Occasional red blood cells present.

Culture: Campylobacter jejuni isolated.

Most cases of Campylobacter enteritis are associated wtih consumption of

poultry, raw milk or untreated surface water and contact with pets.

Chemotherapy is ususally not required (does this just mean antibiotics?)

although in severe adult cases and in food handlers, ERythromycin 550mg

orally six hourly for seven to ten days may be justifed or Norloxacin. "

On hearing my symptoms again, my doctor has referred me to another

gastroenterologist and says I definitely need to get a colonoscopy too

-scary, strong family history of bowel cancer in my Dad's family though not

since my grandad. (I've had two endoscopys, an MRI a CT etc etc, nothing for

a year or so now though).

Anyone know anything about this bug? I read a bit on it on the net last

night and it seems to be associated with the development of arthritis, but I

have to read more about that.

How are all the people with persistent gut problems doing?

DAWN ROSE

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[Guest guest]

Hi Dawn Rose,

I have never heard of this but it sure doesn't sound like fun! Now that

they have isolated this they can now begin treatment right? What did the

doctor mean about chemotherapy though? I thought that was just for certain

cancers.

I hope they get you in treatment and you can kick this thing, one less thing

you will have to deal with then! Let us know what, when and how when you

can please.

TTYL

Jody

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