Campylobacter spp. bacteremia in children

Bacteremia due to Campylobacter spp. is an uncommon infection. It occurs mainly in immunocompromised patients. The objective of this retrospective study was to describe the cases of Campylobacter's bacteremia registered between January 2014 and September 2020 in children admitted to the hospital. Demographic, clinical and microbiological data were recorded. Blood cultures were processed in Bact/Alert 3D (R), bacterial identification was performed by mass spectrometry and antimicrobial susceptibility by the disk diffusion method. Twenty-one Campylobacter isolates were recorded: Campylobacter jejuni (16), Campylobacter upsaliensis (3), Campylobacter coli (1), and Campylobacter ureolyticus (1). All of them were susceptible to meropenem, 88% to erythromycin, and 27% to ciprofloxacin. Median age of the patients was 34 months. Sixty seven percent carried some kind of immunocompromise. Fever and gastroenteritis was present in 81% and 33% of the patients respectively. The importance of suspecting this microorganism in blood cultures from immunocompromised patients is highlighted.