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Guillain-Barré syndrome can follow a Campylobacter jejuni infection as an autoimmune attack on peripheral nerves. The body's immune response to the bacteria sometimes cross-reacts with nerve components (a process called molecular mimicry), leading to demyelination and nerve damage.

The nurse should watch for rapidly progressive, symmetrical weakness that begins in the legs and may ascend, along with decreased or absent reflexes. Sensory symptoms like tingling or numbness, facial weakness, difficulty swallowing, and signs of potential respiratory muscle involvement are also important. This condition can develop days to weeks after the gastrointestinal illness, so gait changes or new weakness after a Campylobacter infection warrants prompt assessment.

Other options aren’t typical post-infectious complications of Campylobacter jejuni. Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disease, while hypertension and osteoporosis are not acute neurological complications linked to this infection.