Thursday, March 2, 2006
Some kids are apparently forgetting to wash their hands after leaving the bathroom and that’s caused a jump in reported cases of shigellosis in Metro Louisville.
Washing hands is the quickest way to avoid the bacteria, according to the health department. Otherwise, officials say children between 2 and 9 years old are at a greater risk of getting sick. The symptoms include diarrhea, fever, nausea, vomiting and cramps.

“If you go poop and you are a child with shigellosis, there is shigella in that stool, in that poop. And so when you don’t wash your hands that well or when a provider who’s cleaning up doesnít wash their hands that well, thatís how the bacteria gets passed on to the next person,” says Dr. Matt Zahn of Metro health.
Currently, Metro Health has 109 confirmed cases of shigellosis since August. The number is usually about eight.
However, thatís nowhere near the 1,000 cases that hit our area back in 1996.
Web story produced by Jay Ditzer.