Previous studies, many uncontrolled, suggest 4 to 32% of people develop irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) after ID. Little information is available on the development of other FGIDs after ID. Aim: To determine if patients with stool culture confirmed bacterial diarrhoea were more likely to develop gut symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of IBS, functional dyspepsia or functional diarrhoea at 3 and 6 month follow up compared with community controls. Methods: A prospective community-based

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... ol study over one year. Subjects with stool positive bacterial infectious diarrhoea and control subjects from the same primary care practice were invited to participate. The presence or not of IBS, functional dyspepsia or functional diarrhoea was diagnosed at the start and at follow up using self-complete Rome II modular questionnaires. The diagnosis of a baseline FGID excluded subjects from continuing. There were 128 cases and 219 community controls eligible and who consented to participate. Results: At follow up there was a higher incidence of FGIDs in the cases compared with controls, mainly due to a higher incidence of IBS (see table) . There was no difference in the incidence of functional dyspepsia between cases and controls. Conclusions: IBS and functional diarrhoea is diagnosed more frequently in people at three and six-month follow up after an episode of stool positive bacterial diarrhoea compared with community controls despite careful exclusion of people with pre-existing FGIDS and adds further support for the concept of post-infectious IBS.