CAMPYLOBACTER BACTEREMIA IN HIV INFECTED PATIENTS - REPORT OF 4 CASES AND REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Campylobacter are frequently isolated from rectal swabs of HIV infected patients (10 %) which have diarrhea or not, but Campylobacter septicemia in these patients are not frequent. We report four new cases associated with a review of the literature (21 cases reported in all). C. fetus subsp fetus is isolated only one time out of three from Campylobacter septicemia in AIDS. In the other cases, C. jejuni/coli or two new Campylobacter species recently isolated from homosexual stools, C. cinaedi and C. fennelliae, are isolated from the blood of HIV infected patients with Campylobacter septicemia in equal terms. The antibiotics susceptibility remains important but new resistances appear principally when monotherapy was primaly used. This resistance must be search in all cases and the patients must be treated with two antibiotics. Because Campylobacter doesn't grow on classical condition, the bacteriologist must be informed when the presence of this bacteria is suspected (diarrhea with fever or fever alone).