Mária Avdičová, Henrieta Hudečková, Mária Štefkovičová, Zuzana Krištúfková
Campylobacter infections belong to zoonotic acute bacterial enteritic diseases with various clinical forms, from a common diarrhoea (frequently with blood stools) to rare forms of febrile convulsions, typhoid like syndrome, reactive arthritis, meningeal syndrome, and Guillen-Barre syndrome with frequency of 1/1000 illnesses. Campylobacter species are important cause of diarrhoea illness worldwide with increasing trend in both developing and developed countries. Occurence in the Slovak Republic increases too, however high inequalities were found within the country between districts from the incidence 0 to 441.9/100 000 inhabitants. In the last ten years the incidence has changed from 23.1 to 40.9/100 000 inhabitants, what is statistically significant increase. The differences among districts are due to unavailability of laboratory diagnostics and their quality too. The aim of the paper is to refer to increasing trends and clinical severity of campylobacter infections and urgent need to improve laboratory diagnostic and comprehensive surveillance of the disease.