Lack of association between long-term illness and infectious intestinal disease in New Zealand.

Abstract

To investigate whether the increase in notified cases of infectious intestinal disease in New Zealand from 1988 to 2001 has resulted in a concurrent increase in associated secondary illness cases. National surveillance system data were compared to hospital discharge data. No statistically significant correlation between the number of cases of campylobacteriosis and Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) was found. There was no statistically significant correlation between the number of cases of campylobacteriosis, salmonellosis, shigellosis, and any of the categories of reactive arthritis; apart from two correlations with campylobacteriosis: with arthropathy associated with Reiter's disease and nonspecific urethritis (Pearson correlation R2=0.69; p<0.02) and unspecified infective arthritis (Pearson correlation R2=0.75; p<0.008). The later category is likely to include cases of both infective and non-infective aetiology. In New Zealand, infectious intestinal diseases are not making a significant contribution to the burden of hospitalisation for reactive arthritis or GBS.