Is the major increase in notified campylobacteriosis in New Zealand real?

Notifications of campylobacteriosis by New Zealand medical practitioners have increased steadily in the last two decades. To determine if this increase is real, as opposed to a surveillance artefact, we examined both available notification (1980–2003) and hospitalization data (1995–2003). The similarity in the temporal pattern of increasing hospitalizations for campylobacteriosis, with that of notifications, is suggestive that this increase is indeed real. Although some risk factors for this disease have been identified (e.g. uncooked poultry consumption) it is unclear what the likely causes of the increasing rates are. The overall disease burden is also high compared with other developed countries (an annual notification rate of 396 cases per 100000 population in 2003), with highest rates in children aged 1–4 years, males, Europeans, and those living in urban areas. Given the large disease burden, further research and intervention studies should be public health priorities in this country.

[1]  G. Simmons,et al.  How important is unsafe domestic food handling in the aetiology of foodborne illness in New Zealand , 2001 .

[2]  Preliminary FoodNet data on the incidence of infection with pathogens transmitted commonly through food--selected sites, United States, 2003. , 2004, MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report.

[3]  G. Benwell,et al.  Spatial and temporal patterns of Campylobacter contamination underlying public health risk in the Taieri River, New Zealand. , 2003, Journal of environmental quality.

[4]  Campylobacter sentinel surveillance schemecollaborators.  Ethnicity and Campylobacter infection: a population-based questionnaire survey. , 2003, The Journal of infection.

[5]  M. Kirk,et al.  Australia's notifiable diseases status, 2003 annual report of the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System. , 2005, Communicable diseases intelligence quarterly report.

[6]  R. Whittaker,et al.  Could laboratory-based notification improve the control of foodborne illness in New Zealand? , 2002, The New Zealand medical journal.

[7]  M. Baker,et al.  Economic cost to New Zealand of foodborne infectious disease. , 2000, The New Zealand medical journal.

[8]  C. Nicol,et al.  Seasonal variation of Campylobacter types from human cases, veterinary cases, raw chicken, milk and water , 1999, Journal of applied microbiology.

[9]  J. Ferlay,et al.  Cancer Incidence in Five Continents , 1970, Union Internationale Contre Le Cancer / International Union against Cancer.

[10]  Laura C Rodrigues,et al.  Study of infectious intestinal disease in England: rates in the community, presenting to general practice, and reported to national surveillance , 1999, BMJ.

[11]  E. Gunnarsson,et al.  Campylobacter spp. in Icelandic poultry operations and human disease. , 2003, Epidemiology and infection.

[12]  M. Baker,et al.  A 10‐year serogroup B meningococcal disease epidemic in New Zealand: Descriptive epidemiology, 1991–2000 , 2001, Journal of paediatrics and child health.

[13]  R. Ikram,et al.  A case control study to determine risk factors for campylobacter infection in Christchurch in the summer of 1992-3. , 1994, The New Zealand medical journal.

[14]  S. Hajat,et al.  Climate variability and campylobacter infection: an international study , 2005, International journal of biometeorology.

[15]  N. Garrett,et al.  Campylobacteriosis in New Zealand: results of a case-control study. , 1997, Journal of epidemiology and community health.

[16]  G. Nichols.  Fly Transmission of Campylobacter , 2005, Emerging infectious diseases.

[17]  P. Mitchell,et al.  Waterborne outbreak of Campylobacter jejuni in Christchurch: the importance of a combined epidemiologic and microbiologic investigation. , 1991, The New Zealand medical journal.

[18]  J. Butzler,et al.  Campylobacter, from obscurity to celebrity. , 2004, Clinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

[19]  B. Gilpin,et al.  Elucidation of potential transmission routes of Campylobacter in New Zealand. , 2003, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[20]  M. Widdowson,et al.  Laboratory surveillance of bacterial gastroenteric pathogens in The Netherlands, 1991–2001 , 2003, Epidemiology and Infection.

[21]  Akke Vellinga,et al.  The Dioxin Crisis as Experiment To Determine Poultry-Related Campylobacter Enteritis , 2002, Emerging infectious diseases.

[22]  P. Scholes,et al.  The occurrence of Campylobacter subtypes in environmental reservoirs and potential transmission routes , 2005, Journal of applied microbiology.