aetiology
Last reviewed 01/2018
60-90% of the genital and enteric forms of the disease are associated with HLA B27. The risks for developing Reiter's disease are:
- 2% in patients attending clinics for non-gonococcal urethritis
- 0.2% in all patients following bacillary dysentery
- 20% in HLA B27 patients following bacillary dysentery
- age 16 to 35
- male to female ratio is 20:1
- the genital form is rare in children but the enteric form does occur
Reiter's syndrome is the result of a genetically determined pathological immune response to an infectious agent.
The agents implicated are:
- genital - chlamydia, gonorrhoea
- enteric - salmonella, yersinia, shigella, campylobacter