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
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
“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
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
The 2009 American Society for Microbiology (ASM) GlaxoSmithKline International ASM Member of the Year Award has been presented to pioneer Shigella researcher Philippe Sansonetti, M.D., director, Unité de Pathogénie Microbienne Moléculaire, Institut Pasteur, Paris.
This award recognizes a distinguished microbiologist who has exhibited exemplary leadership in the international microbiological community. It was presented during the
Over the weekend, the Cleveland Plain Dealer did a wrap-up on the ongoing Shigella outbreak in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.
The newspaper reported that: “Infections from the shigella bacteria began soaring in 2007 and show no signs of slowing down. Cuyahoga County reported 218 cases last year, after averaging about 30 cases a year the prior
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
Decatur, IL and surrounding Macon County appears to be another hotspot for Shigella. Macon County Health officials are reporting 68 cases of Shigella since last November, with 19 cases through the first half of April.
In his blog, Paul Osborne, editor of the Decatur Tribune, reports that statewide there are about 1,300 cases