Smith et al. estimated that 100,000 to 200,000 cases of reactive arthritis arise from foodbome infections each year it the USA 18 . This pathogen is the most common source of foodbome illness in the USA 19 . Unlike organisms such as Salmonella, C. jejuni is not well known to the general public, in part because the organism was not identified as a human pathogen until the 1970s, when the culturing techniques enabling isolation were developed 16 . In severe cases, respiration, swallowing, eye motion and autonomic functions may be affected. The disease progresses rapidly, sometimes within the course of a single day, although symptoms sometimes take several weeks to develop.
Most patients experience the worst symptoms within a month of disease onset and then recover slowly.
The rapidity of disease onset, the severity of the symptoms and the persistence of these symptoms make GBS a particularly devastating illness. Since the decline in polio following widespread public vaccination campaigns, GBS is the leading cause of acute flaccid paralysis throughout the world 11 . The syndrome can probably arise from a number of viral and bacterial infections, as well as administration of certain drugs and vaccinations 14 . C. jejuni is recognised as the most common preceding infection 11 . Epidemiological studies have highlighted the relationship between GBS and disease resulting from preceding C. jejuni infection.