Campylobacteriosis

What is campylobacteriosis?
Symptoms of campylobactersis include diarrhea, cramping, abdominal pain, and fever. The diarrhea may be bloody and can be accompanied by nausea and vomiting. People are usually sick for 1 week. Some persons don't have any symptoms at all.

How is campylobacteriosis diagnosed?
Many different kinds of infections can cause diarrhea and bloody diarrhea. Doctors can look for bacterial causes of diarrhea by asking a laboratory to culture a sample of stool from an ill person.

How can campylobacteriosis be treated?
Virtually all persons infected with Campylobacter will recover without any specific treatment. Patients should drink plenty of fluids as long as the diarrhea lasts.

How do people get campylobacteriosis?
Most cases of campylobacteriosis are associated with handling raw poultry or eating raw or undercooked poultry meat. 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 bacteria from the raw meat can then spread to the other foods. The bacteria are 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. Larger outbreaks due to Campylobacter are not usually associated with raw poultry but are usually related to drinking unpasteurized 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.

Tips for Preventing Campylobacteriosis:

• Make sure that the meat is cooked throughout (no longer pink), any juices run clear, and the inside is cooked to 170^oF (77^oC) for breast meat, and 180^oF (82^oC) for thigh meat.
• If you are served undercooked poultry in a restaurant, send it back for further cooking.
• Wash hands with soap before and after handling raw foods of animal origin.
• Prevent cross-contamination in the kitchen:
  • Use separate cutting boards for foods of animal origin and other foods.
  • Carefully clean all cutting boards, countertops and utensils with soap and hot water after preparing raw food of animal origin.
• Avoid consuming unpasteurized milk and untreated surface water.
• Make sure that persons with diarrhea, especially children, wash their hands carefully and frequently with soap to reduce the risk of spreading the infection.
• Wash hands with soap after having contact with pet feces. 

For more information visit the Centers for Disease Control.