Shigella Lawyer & Attorney : Marler Clark : Shigella Blog

Five swimmers at Silver Lake in Hollis, N.H. got sick during July. Now, four of the five have been confirmed as victims of Shigella. All the swimmers have recovered.

Health officials Monday were out on the lake taking water samples and test results have found the Shigella bacteria are present. More testing is underway, but in meantime swimmers are being warned about the potential for contamination.

Shigella symptoms include diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps starting a day or two after being exposed. Anyone who swam in the lake recently and who are experiencing those symptoms are urged to seek immediate medical care.

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Two eastern Ohio counties are reporting an outbreak of Shigella that may be traced back to a wedding held on the beautiful shores of Grand Lake St. Mary's in Celina.

According to the Wapakoneta Daily News:

Seven Auglaize County residents are among those affected by a bacterial infection from a source in Celina, confirmed the Auglaize County health commissioner.

Health Commissioner Charlotte Parsons, who confirmed the outbreak of shigella this week, said the source of the food- and water-born disease can be traced back to a wedding in Celina.

Most of the seven Auglaize County cases were within one family, Parsons said. Several were juveniles, but none were younger than 15.

There were several other cases reported in Mercer County, but health officials there could not be reached for more information.

The wedding was catered by a business that has its own facilities, and left-over food was disposed of before health officials were called in to investigate.   There is more in today's  Daily News.

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     “Shigella used to be very uncommon,” said Dr. William Little, chairman of the Racine Board of Health. “In all my years of practice I don’t remember seeing anything like this.”

If dealing with Swine Flu was not bad enough, Racine, Wisconsin is finding itself with a growing Shigella outbreak.  When Shigella cases first began to be reported in the spring, health officials figured the outbreak would end with the end of the school year.

But, that did not happen.  In May, Racine had 12 confirmed cases of Shigella.  In June, the number rose to 23.

Typically Racine has only has 11 or 12 cases per year of shigella, Teri Hicks, director of community health programs, told the Journal-Times.

Racine health officials are working with the state but have not yet determined a cause for the increase in the number of cases, Hicks said.

“They have noticed it’s abnormal,” she said.

Surrounding counties have not experienced the uptick in Shigela cases. There's more in the Racine Journal-Times. 

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Intralytix Inc. announced last week that it has been awarded a contract from the United States Army to develop a bacteriophage-based food safety product for reducing or eliminating contamination from pathogenic Salmonella and Shigella spp.

The product would be used to eliminate or significantly reduce contamination of fruits, vegetables and other food products.

Intralytix Inc is a Baltimore-based biotechnology company focused on improving human health through the development and commercialization of innovative products for food safety and human therapeutics using its core bacteriophage (or phage) technology platform.

“We are very pleased with the award because it helps to enrich Intralytix’s portfolio of phage-based, food safety products, and it demonstrates the confidence that the U.S. Army has in Intralytix’s leadership in developing bacteriophage-based preparations for food safety applications for military and civilian populations,” stated Dr. Alexander Sulakvelidze, Intralytix’s Vice-President for Research and Development and Chief Scientist.

For more see the company’s press release.

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