What Are the Causes of Shigella?

Shigella is one of the bacteria responsible for infectious food-borne illnesses. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), approximately 300,000 cases are reported annually. Most at risk are infants, elderly, and the chronically ill.

Description

• Shigella is mainly a disease affecting humans and other primates. The rod-shaped bacteria is responsible for less than 10 percent of the outbreaks of food-borne illnesses in the U.S.

Causes

• Shigella is found in feces and is most often spread by unsanitary food handling. It must be ingested to cause infection. With improper hand washing after defecating, germs remain on the hands allowing people to infect themselves and anyone or anything they touch.

Symptoms

• Shigella causes diarrhea and, when severe, can cause dehydration in the very young, the elderly and the infirm. Other symptoms include nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, straining to have a bowel movement and fever.

Treatment

• Antibiotic treatments are used to kill the shigella bacteria; people with mild infections usually recover quickly without antibiotics. The CDC reports that some shigella bacteria have now become resistant to antibiotic treatments.

Warning

• In rare cases, shigella may cause seizures in very young children. In rare cases shigella germs can be spread when people with diarrhea swim and there is not enough chlorine in the water. The water need only touch the lips to cause an infection.