Campylobacter fetus subspecies fetus; an unforeseen cause of abortion in Regional Australia.

Campylobacter fetus (C.fetus), a gram-negative bacterium, is an established cause of abortion and infertility in cattle, sheep and goats. Human infections have been rarely reported. In contrast to TORCH infections, this campylobacter species is hardly recognised as a cause of abortion in humans. In 1947, R. Vincent, Dumas and Picard were the first to report human infection of C.fetus, which resulted in septic abortion in the second trimester. Since then, there have only been 11 reported cases in pregnant women worldwide and no published reports in Australia, pregnant or otherwise. In this study, we compare our case to the first reported infection of C.fetus in 1947 with the aim to raise awareness and educate doctors and midwives, subsequently impacting prenatal and antenatal counselling in these regions.