Shigella Lawyer & Attorney : Marler Clark : Shigella Blog

The DuPage County Health Department is investigating the cause of food-related illnesses traced to a Subway restaurant in Lombard.

A cluster of gastrointestinal illnesses has been traced primarily to customers of the sandwich shop at 1009 E. Roosevelt Road in Lombard, according to a health department news release. The restaurant has been closed and its owners, along with corporate representatives, have been helping in the investigation.

Although the investigation is still underway, preliminary information shows the outbreak of illness is shigellosis, from a group of bacteria called Shigella, officials said. The illness can lead to diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach cramps one to two days after being exposed.

As of today, eight cases have been confirmed. Four people had to be hospitalized, although one of them has been discharged and is recovering at home.

The bacterium can be acquired from eating contaminated food, and also can be spread from contact of contaminated human waste. Anyone with the illness should not prepare food for others, and anyone contacting an infected person should follow careful hygiene habits, officials said.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (1)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Risk Factors for Sporadic Shigellosis, FoodNet 2005

Clinton C. Haley, Kanyin L. Ong, Katrina Hedberg, Paul R. Cieslak, Elaine Scallan, Ruthanne Marcus, Sanghyuk Shin, Alicia Cronquist, Jennifer Gillespie, Timothy F. Jones, Beletshachew Shiferaw, Candace Fuller, Karen Edge, Shelley M. Zansky, Patricia A. Ryan, Robert M. Hoekstra, Eric Mintz.

Foodborne Pathogens and Disease Abstract

Background: An estimated 450,000 cases of shigellosis occur annually in the United States. Outbreaks have been associated with food, water, child daycare centers, and men who have sex with men. However, for sporadic infections, which account for the majority of cases, risk exposures are poorly characterized.

Methods: Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) conducts active, laboratory-based shigellosis surveillance in 10 US sites. We interviewed cases with illness onset during 2005 about exposures during the week before symptom onset using a standardized questionnaire. The proportion of patients who denied nonfood risks was used to estimate the burden attributable to foodborne transmission.

Results: Overall, 1494 cases were identified. The approximate incidence was 3.9/100,000, with the highest rates among children aged 1–4 years (16.4) and Hispanics (8.4). Of the 929 cases interviewed, 223 (24%) reported international travel in the week before symptom onset. Of the 626 nontraveling cases with complete risk factor information, 298 (48%) reported exposure to daycare or a household member with diarrhea; 99 (16%) reported drinking untreated water or recreational exposure to water; and 16 (3%) reported sexual contact with a person with diarrhea. Two hundred and fifty-nine (41%) denied all nonfood exposures examined.

Conclusions: Sporadic shigellosis is most common among young children and Hispanics. Common exposures include international travel and contact with ill persons or daycare. However, more than one-third of US shigellosis cases annually might be due to food consumed in the United States.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

St. Louis city health officials on Wednesday reported a sharp increase in cases of a highly contagious intestinal bacteria that is typically spread by children.  There have been 67 cases of shigellosis from July 1 through Monday, compared to nine cases for all of 2008, according to the St. Louis City Department of Health.

Health officials said four day care centers and one school clustered in south St. Louis city reported illnesses. Officials did not offer other specifics except to say that children ages 4 and younger are most commonly infected.

Shigellosis infection is marked by fever, stomach cramps and diarrhea that can be bloody.  Most infections resolve without treatment within a week. Some antibiotics may be effective in treating more severe cases, although health officials warned that specimens from the St. Louis cases were shown in labs to be resistant to two antibiotics, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and ampicillin.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Thirty people have died in Papua New Guinea (PNG) from the severe form of dysentery called Shigella that has infected 700 others.

While PNG’s limited health system is dealing with Shigella, to the north in Wasu, 13 people have died amid the country's first outbreak of cholera and 200 others have contracted the water-borne disease.

PNG health officials are combating simultaneous outbreaks of the Flu, Shigella, and Cholera.

All totaled 120 people are dead and the diseases, mostly in the Morobe province on the country’s north coast, have infected thousands.

It is Papua New Guinea's first cholera outbreak and medics fear the situation will get much worse before it gets better.

Radio New Zealand is monitoring this medical emergency.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

We cannot find a copy of it, but apparently there was a Voice of America report that the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia warned Americans in the country of increased risks of diarrheal illnesses including Shigella, Salmonella, and Cholera.

Addis Ababa, one of the dirtiest cities in the world, is experiencing a severe outbreak of "Acute Watery Diarrhea" with one thousand cases being reported a day.   Hospitals are said to be erecting tents to handle all the patients showing up for treatment.  

According to the United Nations Humanitarian Affairs office:

AWD has spread to nine out of ten sub-cities in Addis Ababa and cases continue to increase in each region currently affected by the outbreak (Afar, Amhara, Oromiya, SNNPR and Somali). Humanitarian partners, including UNICEF and WHO, are particularly concerned by the increase in the number of woredas affected in a short period of time and are extremely worried that some people, particularly children, living in areas affected by the ongoing food crisis may be especially vulnerable to infection due to malnutrition.

As a result of the growing seriousness of the situation, the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) has reportedly revised the projected requirements included in the forthcoming Humanitarian Requirements Document, which projects needs per sector for the period August to December, for the prevention, management and treatment of AWD cases.

The government and aide groups have now set up a "command center' to manage the crisis. The UN Humanitarian Bulletin is available for updates. 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Swimmers at Shannon Beach, MA in Winchester are coming down with shigellosis, forcing the Department of Conservation and Recreation to close the popular area formerly known as Sandy Beach.

Renamed last year for Sen. Charles E. Shannon, the former policeman and state senator who represented the area until his death at age 61, was closed at 3 p.m. Friday, Aug. 21st.  It will remain closed until further notice.

"In the interest of public health and safety, we closed the Shannon Beach facility immediately upon learning of the apparent bacterial contamination," DCR Commissioner Richard K. Sullivan, Jr. told WCVB-TV in Boston.

He said a number of people experiencing Shigella reported visiting Shannon Beach within the last three weeks.

"(The) Department of Public Health (DPH) encourages anyone who may have visited Shannon Beach and Playground facilities and who has any of these symptoms, particularly unresolved diarrheal illness, to contact their health care provider," said DPH Commissioner John Auerbach.  "The best prevention is washing hands with soap, particularly after using the toilet or changing diapers.  Soap kills bacteria."

In addition to diarrhea, symptoms include fever, nausea, stomach cramps and vomiting.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (1)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Schools are going to be hypersensitive this year about “deep cleaning” and student sanitation because of Swine Flu.   Maybe that will help with the old standby threats from the likes of .

In Ohio, the Zanesville City Schools are “scrambling to make sure everything is clean as possible for the upcoming school year.” That’s because two of 79 children in a daycare program operated out of the Rufus Putnam School have tested positive for Shigella.

Both victims are girls, the ages 2 and 3.  According to Vicki Whitacre, the Zanesville-Muskingum Health Department’s medical director, food handlers at the daycare are also being tested. Fifteen people who had some contact with the girls have reported experiencing diarrhea symptoms.

Food is brought into the daycare from another site and no other programs served have experienced any problems.   The school district is having everything cleaned and wiped down. 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

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.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

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.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

     “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. 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link