Controlling Spread of Campylobacter

Table of Contents

A. Isolation and Quarantine Requirements

Food handlers, those caring for patients or individuals in hospital, custodial intuitions and child cares with Campylobacter are to be excluded from work until diarrhea ceases and education on proper handwashing is given.

Minimum Period of Isolation of Patient

After diarrhea has resolved, food handlers may return to work.

Minimum Period of Quarantine of Contacts

Contacts of a case with diarrhea who are food handlers shall be considered cases and handled in the same fashion. No restrictions otherwise.

Note: A food handler is any person directly preparing or handling food. This can include a parent or child-care provider.

B. Protection of Contacts of a Case

None.

C. Managing Special Situations

Child Care

 

Since campylobacteriosis may be transmitted person-to-person through fecal-oral transmission, it is important to carefully follow up on outbreaks of campylobacteriosis in a child care.

General recommendations include:

  • Children with Campylobacter infection who have diarrhea should be excluded until their diarrhea is gone.
  • Children with Campylobacter infection who have no diarrhea and are not otherwise ill may be excluded or remain in the program if special attention is given to proper handwashing.
  • Minimum Period of Quarantine of Contacts

Contacts of a case with diarrhea who are food handlers shall be considered cases and handled in the same fashion. No restrictions otherwise.

Note: A food handler is any person directly preparing or handling food. This can include a parent or child-care provider.

D. Preventive Measures

Environmental Measures

Implicated food items must be removed from use. A decision about testing food items implicated in an outbreak can be made in consultation with the Department of Inspections and Appeals, Food and Consumer Safety Division and CADE.

Personal Preventive Measures/Education

To avoid exposures, recommend that people:

  • Always wash their hands thoroughly with soap and water before eating or preparing food, after using the toilet, after changing diapers, and after touching their pets or other animals.
  • After changing diapers, wash the child’s hands as well as their own.
  • In a child care, dispose of feces in a sanitary manner.
  • When caring for someone with diarrhea, scrub their hands with plenty of soap and water after helping the person use the toilet, or changing diapers, soiled clothing or soiled sheets.
  • Keep food that will be eaten raw, such as vegetables, from becoming contaminated by animal-derived food products.
  • Avoid letting infants or young children come into contact with pets that are sick with diarrhea, especially puppies and kittens.
  • Make sure to cook all food products from animals thoroughly, especially poultry products, and avoid consuming raw eggs or cracked eggs, unpasteurized milk, or other unpasteurized dairy products.
  • Avoid sexual practices that may permit fecal-oral transmission. Latex barrier protection should be emphasized as a way to prevent the spread of campylobacteriosis to case’s sexual partners as well as being a way to prevent the exposure to and transmission of other pathogens.

Iowa Dept. of Public Health, Reviewed 7/15