Shigella Bacteria

What is Shigella bacteria?

• Shigella is a bacterium that belongs to the enterobacter family, a group of bacteria that reside in the intestine, not all of which cause disease in humans. 
• It mainly affects the intestine and results in diarrhoea, sometimes bloody, stomach pain, and fever.
• The infection spreads easily as it takes only a small number of bacteria to make someone ill. 
• It is a food- and water-borne infection, and can happen when someone consumes contaminated food.
• The disease is easily spread by direct or indirect contact with the excrement of the patient. 
• One can get the infection if he/she swims or takes a bath in contaminated water.
• Infections like typhoid and cholera are also because of contaminated foods.
• Shigella outbreaks appear to be exacerbated during pregnancy and in children under five years of age, and in those with weakened immune systems.
• There are four types of Shigella bacteria that affect humans, they are: 
  1. 1. Shigella sonnei.
     2. Shigella flexneri.
     3. Shigella boydii.
     4. Shigella dysenteriae. 

• The fourth type causes the most severe disease because of the toxin it produces.

• Infection does not generally kill, unless the patient has a weak immune system or the pathogen is resistant to the antibiotics that are prescribed. 

• If the bacteria continue to proliferate in the body even after giving the antibiotics, it will continue to produce toxins, which can then affect the kidney, cause seizures, lead to multi-organ failure, and shock, and even turn fatal. 

• The mortality of the infection is less than 1%.

• The measures to prevent a Shigella infection are the same as that of any other food- and water-borne infection.