科研之友
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摘要
Campylobacter is the leading cause of bacterial gastroenteritis in Europe, North America and Australia and the annual number of infections reported in these continents has generally been increasing during the past 2 to 3 decades [1-3]. In Denmark the incidence of Campylobacter infections rose 4-fold from 1991 to 2001, but has since stabilized; in 2001 there were 87 registered infections per 100,000 population; the 2007 incidence was 71.5 per 100,000 population [4].The major part of the infections are sporadic and consumption and handling of fresh poultry, chicken in particular, is generally recognized as the most important source of infection [2,3]. A recent Danish case-control study of sporadic infections found consumption of fresh (as opposed to frozen) chicken to be the most important risk factor along with foreign travel [5]. However, the epidemiology of Campylobacter is not thoroughly understood and a number of other sources are believed to play a role, including: drinking water, the environment and contact with farm animals. In Denmark, as in many other countries, such sources of infection would be expected to be geographically unevenly distributed, i.e. localized to certain areas, with the source of infection potentially persisting through time. This is in contrast to a situation where consumption of poultry is the only source, since the risk of buying contaminated poultry is the same throughout the country. Epidemiological studies examining the spatial distribution of human Campylobacter patients may therefore be valuable both as general tools to cast light on non-food risk factors and to search for specific areas where there might be an increased risk of infection. Though 'environmental' risk factors (such as contact with farm animals) have been identified in a number of case-control studies [3], only few studies using spatial analysis have been performed. In a recent Canadian study of the location of Campylobacter patients in the province of Manitoba, pati
