Campylobacter infection

A Campylobacter infection is a foodborne illness, meaning you catch it by eating or drinking, and it is linked to undercooked poultry and contaminated water. It is a very common cause of diarrhea.

Campylobacter is a gram-negative rod, that is, a long bacterium of the kind that does not hold the dye in the stain used to classify bacteria, and it is shaped like a corkscrew. It moves with flagella, whip-like tails that propel it and that it uses to attach to the epithelium, the layer of cells that lines the intestine. There C. jejuni invades and destroys those cells. It is a corkscrew that twists its way into the wall of the intestine.

That damage leaves inflammatory lesions in the mucosa of the jejunum and the ileum, two stretches of the intestine, and that is where the diarrhea comes from; it usually lasts five to seven days.