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Food poisoning, Campylobacter: Now a leading cause of bacterial food poisoning, caused by an Campylobacter jejuni, most often spread by contact with raw or undercooked poultry. A single drop of juice from a contaminated chicken is enough to make someone sick with Campylobacteriosis (disease due to Campylobacter bacteria).
Campylobacteriosis usually strikes only one person or a few people at a time. A common 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 diarrhea.
Many chicken flocks are silently infected with Campylobacter that is, the chickens are infected with the organism but show no signs of illness. When an infected bird is slaughtered, Campylobacter can be transferred from the intestines to the meat. More than half of the raw chicken in the US market has Campylobacter on it. Campylobacter is also present in the giblets, especially the liver.
Larger outbreaks of Campylobacteriosis are not usually associated with raw poultry but with drinking unpasteurized milk or contaminated water. Unpasteurized milk can become contaminated if the cow has an infection with Campylobacter in her udder or if the milk is contaminated with manure. Surface water and mountain streams can become contaminated from infected feces from cows or wild birds. This infection is common in the developing world, and travelers to foreign countries are also at risk for becoming infected with Campylobacter.
Animals can also be infected, and some people are known to have acquired their infection from contact with the infected stool of an ill dog or cat.
Symptoms tend to start 2 to 5 days after exposure and typically last a week. They resemble viral gastroenteritis -- diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, cramping, nausea and vomiting -- but with campylobacter, fever is typical and the diarrhea is often bloody.
Most people get better within 2 to 5 days after the onset of symptoms without specific treatment, although sometimes recovery can take up to 10 days. People with immune deficiencies may benefit from two weeks of antibiotics such as erythromycin or a fluoroquinolone. And, as all types of diarrhea, one should maintain a high intake of fluids for as long as the diarrhea persists.
To prevent campylobacteriosis,
Most people who have campylobacteriosis recover completely. However, some suffer long-term consequences. One is arthritis. Another is a condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome. Both are thought to occur when a person's immune system is triggered by the Campylobacter to attack the person's own body. In arthritis, the attack is mounted against joints while in Guillain-Barre syndrome the attack is against nerves leading to ascending paralysis that typically lasts several weeks and usually requires intensive care. It is estimated that approximately one in every 1000 campylobacteriosis cases leads to Guillain-Barre syndrome. As many as 40% of Guillain-Barre syndrome cases may be triggered by campylobacteriosis.