May 2009

Communities combating shigella since last fall are counting on the end of the school year to break the back of the far-flung outbreaks.

In Macon County, GA, the local health department continues to encourage people to wash their hands and to stay away from home or school if they come down with diarrhea.  There were 31 cases of shigella in Macon County in April and 23 so far in May.

Up north in Sedgwick County, KS there have been 52 confirmed cases of Shigella this year, compared to only 20 cases in all of 2008.   Kansas’s health officials are stepping up their warnings to parents.

 In nearby Missouri, nearly a dozen people have come down with Shigella this month, causing the Springfield-Greene County Health Department to issue a warning.

And down in the Texas panhandle, Lubbock is looking for the end of its eight-month Shigella outbreak.  The infection rate for the diarrheal illness peaked last fall with 308 reported cases in November, according to department records. Anything more than eight cases per month is considered an outbreak, Lubbock Public Health Coordinator Beckie Brawley said.

Continue Reading Local Health Officials In KS, MO, GA, and TX Issue Warnings About Shigella

Missouri’s Springfield-Greene County Health Department put this statement on their website yesterday:

Hand washing protects you from a number of different illnesses, including colds, viruses and diarrheal illnesses like shigellosis. Greene County has seen an increase in shigellosis cases in the past month. Shigellosis is caused by the Shigella bacteria and is spread easily

The World Health Organization says Shigellosis is endemic throughout the world.

Worldwide there are approximately 164.7 million cases, of which 163.2 million in developing countries and 1.5 million in industrialized countries.

Each year 1.1 million people are estimated to die from Shigella infection and 580, 000 cases of shigellosis are reported among travellers from