Spatio-temporal epidemiology of Campylobacter jejuni enteritis, in an area of Northwest England, 2000-2002.

Gabriel, E., Wilson, D. J., Leatherbarrow, A. J., Cheesbrough, J., Gee, S., Bolton, E., Fox, A., Fearnhead, P., Hart, C. A. and P. J. Diggle (2010)
Epidemiology and Infection 138: 1384-1390. (pdf)

A total of 969 isolates of Campylobacter jejuni originating in the Preston, Lancashire post-code district over a three-year period have been characterized using multi-locus sequence typing. Recently developed statistical methods and a genetic model are used to investigate temporal, spatial, spatio-temporal and genetic variation amongst human C. jejuni infections. The analysis of the data shows statistically significant seasonal variation, spatial clustering, small-scale spatio-temporal clustering and spatio-temporal interaction in the overall pattern of incidence, and spatial segregation amongst cases classified according to their most likely species-of-origin.