The Chiefland Citizen reported on September 27, 2006 that:

A Sept. 14 letter distributed to parents of Chiefland Elementary School children warns of a disease known as Shigella, which can go undetected for seven days and the carriers of the disease may not show symptoms.

Those symptoms are: watery, bloody or loose stool, fever, and headache or cramps.

Shigella is spread from person-to-person, or by eating or drinking contaminated food or beverage, or by touching a contaminated object, according to the letter by Elizabeth Powers, R.N., with the Levy County Health Department.

Levy County Health Department Administrator of Health Barbara Locke, R.N., M.P.H., said Shigella is a fecal-oral bacterial infection of the intestines.