Brooksville, Florida – In response to a recent Shigella outbreak in several Citrus County day care centers, The Hernando County Health Department is working to educate local residents about the bacteria. Symptoms of Shigella can include diarrhea, abdominal pain and fever and usually start within 1-7 days of exposure. Symptoms may be mild to severe.

Citrus County health officials are working quickly to contain the outbreak. Until that time, the Hernando County Health Department has advised local day care centers not to accept new enrollees from Citrus County.

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Health officials are calling on parents, caretakers, and workers at day-care centers and schools to help end an outbreak of a highly contagious intestinal illness called shigellosis.

The outbreak started in early November and has spread to about 60 day cares in the city and in north St. Louis County and two in Fenton, said Michael Williams, director of the communicable disease division of the St. Louis County Health Department.

County health officials have recorded 359 cases, 331 of which struck this year. In the city, 152 people have been sickened by the bacterial disease, with about 30 new cases appearing each month, said Pamela Rice Walker, acting director of the City Health Department. Most of the sick have been preschool-age children or young elementary school children — many who have siblings in day care, she said. St. Charles County has had three cases of shigellosis in the past month, two of which were associated with day cares.

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Health department cites almost 80 cases of shigella, which can cause diarrhea, stomach pain and fever

An outbreak of a diarrheal infection has hit daycares across the county the past few months, according to the Citrus County Health Department.

Since January there have been almost 80 confirmed cases of shigella and about 30 other possible cases, assistant director of nursing Virginia Crandall said.

Shigella is an infection caused by a bacteria and can be easily passed from one person to another. Symptoms typically include diarrhea, which may include blood or mucous, abdomi-nal pain and fever. Symptoms typically begin within one to seven days of exposure and range from mild to severe.

“This is not a germ that we’ve seen very much in the last few years in Citrus County,” Crandall said.

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The CDC today released its preliminary 2006 food-borne illness data from 10 states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Tennessee. A total of 17,252 confirmed cases (actual cases may be anywhere between 20 and 30 times the confirmed cases) of food-borne illness were reported in those states in 2006, according to the CDC. The most commonly reported illnesses were:

Salmonella: 6,655 cases

Campylobacter: 5,712 cases

Shigella: 2,736 cases

Cryptosporidium: 859 cases

E. coli O157: 590 cases

E. coli non-O157: 209 cases

Yersinia: 158 cases

Vibrio: 154 cases

Listeria: 138 cases

Cyclospora: 41 cases

The Katy Independent School District and Harris County health officials are trying to prevent an intestinal disease from turning into an outbreak at Golbow Elementary School.

Several Golbow students have recently been diagnosed with shigellosis, a bacterial disease that causes diarrhea and other symptoms, said Carolyn S. Fruthaler, chief of Disease Control & Medical Epidemiology for the Harris County Public Health & Environmental Services Department.

In a Tuesday letter to parents of Golbow students, Fruthaler said her department has been working closely with KISD and school officials because “several cases can quickly lead to an explosive outbreak, especially in elementary schools. Although rare, shigellosis can cause very serious illness and hospitalization.”

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Erin Ochoa KVUE reports:

School officials in Round Rock are trying to stop the spread of a highly-contagious disease. The Williamson County Health Department says it has seen more than thirty cases of shigella in Round Rock, most of them in children.

Shigella is an infectious disease that’s caused by bacteria. So far, more than twenty-two students at Forest Creek Elementary and two at Ridgeview Middle School – both in Round Rock ISD — have reported having symptoms of Shigella. School officials are now doing all they can to stop the spread of the disease.

Day care centers and some schools in Hamilton County are being warned about a possible outbreak of a childhood stomach illness.

After seeing an unexpected early increase in shigella and shigellosis, the Hamilton County Health District decided to issue a warning letter.

It’s now sending out warning notices to day care centers and some schools warning them about shigella or shigelliosis.

It’s a bacterial illness that mainly causes diarrhea.

The health district said so far it has 25 shigella cases reported this year, with several of them coming from one day care center.

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The Broward County Health Department is warning parents, schools and daycare centers to take precautionary action to prevent the spread of Shigellosis. ??Shigellosis is a highly contagious form of diarrhea caused by Shigella bacteria. It can spread through person-to-person contact and may cause severe diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps.??Parents of children or anyone with symptoms of Shigellosis should contact their health care provider for diagnosis and treatment. ??Careful attention to hand washing is the single most important measure to decrease the spread of the Shigella bacteria.??"We have noted a marked increase in the diagnosis of Shigellosis in Broward County over the past weeks," said Dr. John R. Livengood, Assistant Epidemiology Director at the Broward County Health Department. "We have a total of 52 reported cases so far this year, compared to 8 this same time last year."??Livengood said their main concern is that there have been 27 cases in children 5 to 9 years old and 13 cases in children 1 to 4 years old – ages where shigella bacteria can be easily spread.??Symptoms may last from 48 to 72 hours, frequently marked by fever, stomach cramps and bloody stools. School aged children, and children in daycare, should be kept at home until the symptoms have passed.

The City of Hamilton’s Public Health Services in Canada has received a report of Shigella infection in a food handler who worked in the Snack Bar at Denningers at 826 Queenston Rd, Stoney Creek from February 28th to March 5th.

Public Health Services is asking anyone who developed diarrhea after consuming foods purchased from the Snack Bar between February 28th and March 5th, to consult their health care provider and contact Hamilton Public Health Services at 905-546-2063.  Any left over foods purchased from the Snack Bar between February 28th and March 5th should not be eaten and should be disposed of or returned to the Stoney Creek store.

Symptoms usually appear one to three days after a person becomes infected, with a range of 12 hours to eight days.  Symptoms include diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps.  The illness caused by Shigella usually resolves in four to seven days.  In some people, especially young children and the elderly, the diarrhea can be so severe that the patient needs to be hospitalized.

RIVERTON – A state health official says Fremont County’s outbreak of shigellosis, a gastrointestinal infection caused by bacteria, is coming to an end.

"We haven’t seen a case since late January, so we think the biggest part of the outbreak is over," said Kelly Weidenbach, surveillance epidemiologist for the Wyoming Health Department.

So far, 102 cases have been identified, most of them in children, including 16 children who were hospitalized.

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