Persistent Campylobacter jejuni infections in patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

We identified Campylobacter jejuni infections in four patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV); three had persistent and severe C. jejuni infections. Multiple isolates obtained from each patient had the same biochemical and serotypic characteristics, indicating recurrent infection rather than reinfection with unrelated strains. Serum antibody responses to C. jejuni group antigens by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were markedly impaired in the three patients with persistent infection compared with forty-two immunocompetent C. jejuni-infected controls and with the HIV-infected patient who readily cleared the organism. One patient was bacteremic; his blood isolate was killed by normal serum but was resistant to his own serum, whereas a simultaneous stool isolate of a different serotype was sensitive. Failure of two patients to eradicate the organism and long-term administration of erythromycin therapy led to the in-vivo development of resistance to this antibiotic, which is most frequently used to treat C. jejuni infections.