eLetters: Campylobacter vs. Helicobacter?
In response to: Clinical Update: E. coli, antibiotics and hemolytic-uremic syndrome in children

Marc Romney
Affiliation: Medical Microbiology, University of British Columbia
Posted on: September 26, 2000

Dear Editor,

I read with interest Dr. Farquhar's summary of the recently published Wong CS et. al article (Clinical Update CMAJ Aug. 22, 2000). I was a bit perplexed by the last sentence under Implications for practice:

"The findings of this study strongly suggest that these drugs should be withheld in children with acute diarrheal illness until stool cultures confirm growth of an organism for which therapy is indicated (e.g. Campylobacter pylori)."

Did Dr. Farquhar mean Campylobacter jejuni? As you are most probably aware, Campylobacter pylori has been renamed Helicobacter pylori. It does not cause a diarrheal illness, nor is it routinely grown from stool cultures.

Yours truly,

Marc Romney
UBC Medical Microbiology
St. Paul's Hospital
Vancouver

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