The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a health alert to warn the public about a potentially antibiotic-resistant bacteria known as Shigella.
The agency, in its Feb. 24 notice, said it is “monitoring an increase in extensively drug-resistant Shigella infections reported through national surveillance systems” and said that about 5 percent of “Shigella infections reported to CDC were caused by” drug-resistant strains. That’s compared with 0 percent in 2015, it noted.
“Given these potentially serious public health concerns, CDC asks healthcare professionals to be vigilant about suspecting and reporting cases of [drug-resistant] Shigella infection to their local or state health department and educating patients and communities at increased risk about prevention and transmission,” the CDC advisory said.
The notice said that most patients recover from shigellosis without antibiotics and oral rehydration may be sufficient for many people who are dealing with shigellosis. However, for patients who are battling drug-resistant forms of the bacteria, there are no CDC recommendations for treatment.
Antibiotic-resistant Shigella bacteria can resist azithromycin, ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and ampicillin, the CDC notice said.
“However, a recent publication from the United Kingdom outlined a possible strategy for treating severe [drug-resistant] shigellosis using oral pivmecillinam and fosfomycin (for patients with prolonged symptoms or as oral step-down after intravenous treatment) or IV carbapenems and colistin (for hospitalized patients with severe infections or complications,” the advisory said.
Shigella is No. 1 cause of bacterial diarrhea in the world, says the World Health Organization on its website. In 2016, it accounted for approximately 212,000 deaths, or about 13 percent of all diarrhea-associated fatalities, WHO says.
Outbreaks
A report issued last week from a European health agency (pdf) found that more than 200 cases of Shigella infections were reported on Cape Verde, a country located off the coast of Africa. That report noted that some cases may involve the antibiotic-resistant strain and that infected individuals returned back to the United States since September 2022.“In the current outbreak, information on possible vehicles of infection or common exposures have not yet been identified but investigations are ongoing in Cabo Verde,” said the report. “Multiple modes of transmission are plausible, with the most likely one being foodborne (including via infected food handlers) but person-to-person transmission is also possible.”
And last year, a federal study said dozens of people got sick after visiting a splash park near Wichita, Kansas, in the summer of 2021. About 21 people contracted Shigella bacteria and six others became sick with the norovirus after visiting the splash park at Tanganyika Wildlife Park in Goddard, officials said.
Another 36 people reported gastrointestinal illnesses after visiting the splash park but didn’t have lab tests confirming what caused their illnesses. At least four people were hospitalized afterward.
