GUILLAIN-BARRE-SYNDROME IN SOUTH-AFRICA ASSOCIATED WITH CAMPYLOBACTER-JEJUNI O-41 STRAINS

Over a 20-month period, 3 adult and 6 pediatric patients were diagnose d with Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) at Groote Schuur and Red Cross Ho spitals in Cape Town. All 9 GBS patients had Campylobacter jejuni biot ype 2, serotype 0:41 in their stools. C. jejuni infection was confirme d by ELISA testing of patient sera. Strains of this sero-biotype are r are: Only 12 such strains, including the GBS-associated strains, were recognized among 776 Campylobacter strains isolated and identified at Red Cross Hospital from March 1994 to October 1995. This is the first known association of C. jejuni biotype 2, serotype 0:41 with GBS. Pati ents infected with this Campylobacter strain had a particularly severe form of the infection, requiring hospitalization and ventilation much longer than GBS patients infected with other Campylobacter species an d patients with Campylobacter-negative stools. The 0:41 Campylobacter isolates from the GBS patients are identical by phenotypic, serologic, and molecular criteria, and they are clonal.