Long-Term Outcomes of Patients with Postinfectious Irritable Bowel Syndrome

After an acute enteric illness, up to 30% of people experience new gastrointestinal symptoms that persist, despite clearance of the underlying pathogen. Little is known about the long-term prognosis of such patients: Until recently, only four studies (all of them small) had followed affected individuals for longer than 2 years. Now, investigators have published findings from a large, long-term study of patients with postinfectious irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

In May 2000, heavy rainfall washed farm runoff into an inadequately chlorinated water supply and caused an outbreak of Escherichia coli 0157:H7 and Campylobacter jejuni infections that affected half the residents of Walkerton, Ontario (population, ~5000). The Walkerton Health Study w…