There shigellosis is a diarrheal disease, particularly contagious, through the fecal-oral route. Recently, researchers discovered that the bacteria that causes it (shigella sonnei) had a highly antibiotic-resistant strain that was spreading in Europe, as the Pasteur Institute points out.
In most cases, shigellosis is not a serious disease, it causes a diarrhea that lasts between 3 and 4 days and goes away on its own. But it happens that the infection causes a more important reaction, going until severe cases, being able to involve complications or even bloody diarrhoea. And in this case, there is no other choice but to treat with antibiotics.
Increase in antibiotic resistance
This disease is often detected in men who have sex with other men. And in recent years, strains more resistant to antibiotics have been spreading, coming from South Asia. Some are even said highly resistant : they were identified for the first time in 2015.
“Then the scientists found that the proportion of these XDR strains, which are resistant to almost all of the antibiotics recommended for the treatment of shigellosis, increased significantly until reaching a peak in 2021 : 22.3% of all S. sonnei strains were highly resistant that year (corresponding to 99 cases),” the study notes.
How is shigellosis treated?
For severe cases, it is still possible to treat them, although the options are limited and more invasive: “the only antibiotics remaining effective are carbapenems or colistin which must be administered intravenouslywhich makes the treatment more aggressive with more complex follow-up in a hospital environment”, notes the Institut Pasteur. These findings lead the researchers to think that this infection should be screened for during consultations for sexually transmitted infections ( STI), and that an antibiogram be performed if shigella is detected.
Source: Pasteur Institute