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Shigellosis, also known as bacillary dysentery in its most severe manifestation, is a foodborne illness
Foodborne illness

Foodborne illness is any illness resulting from the consumption of food.There are two types of food poisoning: food infection and food intoxication....
 caused by infection by bacteria of the genus Shigella
Shigella

Shigella is a genus of Gram-negative, Endospore rod-shaped bacterium closely related to Escherichia coli and Salmonella. The causative agent of human shigellosis, Shigella cause disease in primates, but not in other mammals....
. Shigellosis rarely occurs in animals other than humans and other primates like monkeys and chimpanzees. The causative organism is frequently found in water polluted with human feces
Feces

Feces, faeces, or f?ces is a waste product from an animal's gastrointestinal tract expelled through the anus during defecation....
, and is transmitted via the fecal-oral route
Fecal-oral route

The fecal-oral route is a Transmission of diseases, when they can be passed when Feces particles from one host are introduced into the mouth of another potential host....
. The usual mode of transmission is directly person-to-person hand-to-mouth, in the setting of poor hygiene among children.






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Shigellosis, also known as bacillary dysentery in its most severe manifestation, is a foodborne illness
Foodborne illness

Foodborne illness is any illness resulting from the consumption of food.There are two types of food poisoning: food infection and food intoxication....
 caused by infection by bacteria of the genus Shigella
Shigella

Shigella is a genus of Gram-negative, Endospore rod-shaped bacterium closely related to Escherichia coli and Salmonella. The causative agent of human shigellosis, Shigella cause disease in primates, but not in other mammals....
. Shigellosis rarely occurs in animals other than humans and other primates like monkeys and chimpanzees. The causative organism is frequently found in water polluted with human feces
Feces

Feces, faeces, or f?ces is a waste product from an animal's gastrointestinal tract expelled through the anus during defecation....
, and is transmitted via the fecal-oral route
Fecal-oral route

The fecal-oral route is a Transmission of diseases, when they can be passed when Feces particles from one host are introduced into the mouth of another potential host....
. The usual mode of transmission is directly person-to-person hand-to-mouth, in the setting of poor hygiene among children. Ten to fifteen (10-15)% of people affected will die. In the developing world, Shigella causes approximately 165 million cases of severe dysentery
Dysentery

Dysentery is a disorder of the digestive system that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the feces. If untreated, Dysentery can be fatal....
 and more than 1 million deaths each year, mostly in children in the developing world. Shigella also causes approximately 580,000 cases annually among travelers and military personnel from industrialized countries.

Symptoms

Symptoms may range from mild abdominal
Abdomen

In vertebrates such as mammals the abdomen constitutes the part of the body between the thorax and pelvis. The region enclosed by the abdomen is termed the abdominal cavity....
 discomfort to full-blown dysentery
Dysentery

Dysentery is a disorder of the digestive system that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the feces. If untreated, Dysentery can be fatal....
 characterized by cramps, diarrhoea, fever
Fever

Fever is a frequent medical sign that describes an increase in internal body temperature to levels above normal. Fever is most accurately characterized as a temporary elevation in the body's thermoregulatory set-point, usually by about 1?2 ?C ....
, vomiting
Vomiting

Vomiting is the forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose. Undesired vomiting may result from many causes, ranging from gastritis or poisoning to brain tumors, or elevated intracranial pressure....
, blood, pus, or mucus in stools or tenesmus
Tenesmus

Tenesmus is a feeling of incomplete defecation. It is experienced as an inability or difficulty to empty the bowel at defecation. It is frequently painful and may be accompanied by involuntary straining and other gastrointestinal symptoms....
. Onset time is 12 to 50 hours.

Infections are associated mucosal ulceration, rectal bleeding
Rectal bleeding

Rectal bleeding can refer to:* Lower gastrointestinal bleeding* Hematochezia* Fecal occult blood* Melena...
, drastic dehydration
Dehydration

Dehydration is the removal of water from an object. In Physiology terms, it entails a relative deficiency of water molecules in relation to other dissolved solutes....
; fatality may be as high as 10-15% with some strains. Reiter's disease and hemolytic uremic syndrome are possible sequelae that have been reported in the aftermath of shigellosis.

Shigella can be transmitted through food
Food

Food is any substance, usually composed of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water, that can be Eating or Drinking by an animal or human for nutrition or pleasure....
. Food known to do so includes salad
Salad

Salad is a mixture of cold or hot foods, usually including vegetables and/or fruits, often with a dressing, occasionally nuts or croutons, and sometimes with the addition of meat, fish, pasta, cheese, eggs, or whole grains....
s (potato, tuna, shrimp, macaroni, and chicken), raw vegetable
Vegetable

The term "vegetable" generally means the Eating parts of plants. The definition of the word is traditional rather than scientific, however, and therefore the usage of the word is somewhat arbitrary and subjective, as it is determined by individual cultural customs of food selection and food preparation....
s, milk
Milk

Milk is an opaque white liquid produced by the mammary glands of female mammals . It provides the primary source of nutrition for newborn mammals before they are able to digestion other types of food....
 and dairy product
Dairy product

Dairy products are generally defined as foodstuffs produced from milk. They are usually high-energy-yielding food products. A production plant for such processing is called a dairy or a dairy factory....
s, and meat
Meat

In modern English usage, meat most often refers to animal biological tissue used as food, mostly skeletal muscle and associated fat, but it may also refer to offal, including livers, skin, brains, bone marrow, kidneys, in some countries lungs, and a variety of other internal organs as well as blood....
. Contamination of these foods is usually through the fecal-oral route. Fecally contaminated water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
 and unsanitary handling by food handlers are the most common causes of contamination.

An estimated 18,000 cases of shigellosis occur annually in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. Infants, the elderly, and the infirm are susceptible to the severest symptoms of disease, but all humans are susceptible to some degree. Shigellosis is a very common malady suffered by individuals with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS
AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the HIV ....
) and AIDS-related complex
AIDS-related complex

AIDS-related complex, or ARC, was introduced by the discovery of the AIDS in 1981. ARC is a condition in which antibody tests are positive for HIV....
. Shigellosis is a more common and serious condition in the developing world.

Prevention of Shigellosis


Simple precautions can be taken to prevent getting Shigellosis: wash hands before handling food and thoroughly cook all food before eating.

In addition to improved sanitation
Sanitation

Sanitation is the hygienic means of preventing human contact from the hazards of wastes to promote health. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease....
 and hygiene, several vaccine candidates for Shigella are in various stages of development. According to the World Health Organization
World Health Organization

The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health....
, candidates include live attenudated, conjugate, ribosomal, and proteosome vaccines. There is promising results for a vaccine against serotype 1, which otherwise show large resistance against antibiotics.

Treatment of Shigellosis


Treatment consists mainly of replacing fluids and salts lost because of diarrhea. Oral replacement is satisfactory for most people, but some may need to receive fluids intravenously. In most cases, the disease resolves within 4 to 8 days without antibiotics. Severe infections may last 3 to 6 weeks. Antibiotics such as trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin, or furazolidone may be given when the person is very young or very old, when the disease is severe, or when there is a high risk of the infection spreading to other people. The severity of the symptoms and the length of time the stool contains Shigella are reduced with antibiotics. Antidiarrheal drugs (such as diphenoxylate
Diphenoxylate

Diphenoxylate is an opioid agonist used for the treatment of diarrhoea that acts by slowing intestinal contractions and peristalsis allowing the body to consolidate intestinal contents and prolong transit time, thus allowing the intestines to draw moisture out of them at a normal or higher rate and therefore stop the formation of loose and l...
 or loperamide
Loperamide

Loperamide, a synthetic piperidine derivative, is a medication effective against diarrhea resulting from gastroenteritis or inflammatory bowel disease....
) may prolong the infection and should not be used.

See also

  • Diarrhea
    Diarrhea

    In medicine, diarrhea, also spelled diarrhoea , is characterized by frequent loose or liquid bowel movements. The spelling of "diarrhea" is an appropriation of the Greek "diarrhoia" meaning "a flowing through." ....
  • Dysentery
    Dysentery

    Dysentery is a disorder of the digestive system that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the feces. If untreated, Dysentery can be fatal....
  • Diarrheal diseases
  • Infectious diarrhea
    Infectious diarrhea

    Infectious diarrhea may be defined as diarrhea caused by an infection of the digestive system by a Bacteria, virus, or parasite that results in frequent bowel motions producing excessive amounts of watery stool....
  • Traveler's diarrhea
    Traveler's diarrhea

    Traveler's diarrhea or traveller's diarrh?a , abbreviated to TD, is the most common illness affecting travelers. Traveler's diarrhea is defined as three or more unformed stools in 24 hours passed by a traveler, commonly accompanied by abdominal cramps, nausea, and bloating....
  • Gastroenteritis
    Gastroenteritis

    Gastroenteritis is inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, involving both the stomach and the small intestine and resulting in acute diarrhea....


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