Genetic stability of Campylobacter coli in patients with primary antibody deficiencies

In the Clinical Communication, Dion et al 1 reported that in patients with severe primary antibody deficiency (PAD), Campylobacter infection is a major cause (6.5%) of chronic or recurrent diarrhea. Moreover, by a molecular study performed in a subset of 18 strains from 5 patients with recurrent infections, they demonstrated that all strains were different, even when the episodes occurred closely over time. Thus, the authors hypothesized that reinfection would be more likely than persistent colonization, although colonization with multiple strains cannot be excluded. In a previous study, 2 our group showed that Campylobacter coli (C. coli) (6.7%) was the first cause of diarrhea in patients with symptomatic PAD with a positive stool culture, followed by Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) (3.9%). Moreover, C. coli was also the most frequent isolate (5%) in patients with asymptomatic PAD, followed by C. jejuni (1.2%), whereas in immunocompetent individuals, C. jejuni is one of the most prevalent etiologic agents of gastroenteritis and C. coli has a low prevalence in diarrheal disease.