Abstract
Shigellosis, an old disease in new clothes, caused by Shigellae, has emerged as one of the major public health problems of particularly the developing regions. Shigellae are a group of microorganisms, which are spread through various routes including contaminated water and food. Shigellae are the third of most common pathogens transmitted through food. These cause dysentery, a clinical condition characterized by tenesmus (intestinal colicky pain) and the frequent passage of blood-stained mucopurulent stools. The Genus Shigella is grouped into four species: Shigella dysenteriae, Shigella boydi, Shigella flexneri, and Shigella sonnei. These species differ in geographic distribution, virulence, and drug susceptibility. Shigellosis is common in tropics and developing world due to poor hygiene, sanitation, high-risk behavior, and scarcity of water. The global disease burden due to Shigellosis is some 120 million cases, majority of these occur in the developing countries and involve children less than 5 years of age. 60 % of the deaths out of total of 1.1 million deaths each year occurring in children under 5 years of age are due to Shigella infection. Currently, Shigellosis disease burden is estimated to be at 90 million episodes and 108,000 deaths per year. About 500,000 cases of shigellosis are reported in addition, each year among military personnel and travellers from developed countries. Estimates of Shigellosis by ICCDRB, Bangladesh, show a small reduction in number of infections but marked decrease (90 %) in mortality compared to previous estimates. However, shigellosis has become a major health problem due to emergence of drug-resistant organisms, low infectivity dose (10 S. dysenteriae organisms), poor hygiene, and virulence. Humans and possibly some other primates are the reservoir for Shigellae. Currently, there is no effective vaccine, and the organism is reportedly increasingly developing resistant to the drugs like amoxicillin, cotrimoxazole, ampicillin, and chloramphenicol, etc. This is further adding to the problem of Shigellosis. Hence, it is prudent to include a chapter on Shigellae and Shigellosis in this tome on water and health.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ananthnarayan R, Paniker CKJ (2009) Enterobacteriaceae II shigella. In: Ananthnarayan R, Paniker CKJ (eds) Ananthnarayan and Paniker’s textbook of microbiology, 8th edn. University Press India Pvt. Ltd., India, pp 283–286
Berger SA (2010) Shigellosis: Global Status, 2010 Gideon e-book series, http://www.gideononline.com/ebooks/disease/shigellosis-global-status/outbreaksamongtravellers
ICDDR (2004) Meeting report-Shigellosis-pathophysiology and clinical management of Shigellosis. B Period J Health, Popul Nutr 22(4)
Kimura AC et al (2004) Multistate Shigellosis outbreak and commercially prepared food, United States. Emerg Infect Dis 10(6):1147–1149. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol10no6/pdfs/03-0599.pdf. Accessed 9 May 2010
Legros D (2004) Shigellosis: Report of a Workshop-held at ICDDR, B: Center for Health and Population Research, Dhaka Bangladesh, on 16–18 Feb 2004, pp 445–449
Moralez EI, Lofland D (2011) Shigellosis with resultant septic shock and renal failure. Clin Lab Sci 24(3):147–152
Nandy S, Dutta S, Ghosh S et al (2011) Foodborne-associated Shigella sonnei, India, 2009 and 2010. Emerg Infect Dis 17(11):1–5. http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/17/11/11-0403_article.htm
National Center for Zoonotic, vector Borne, and Enteric Diseases of the CDC (2009) Shigellosis. (16 Nov 2009): 6 May 2010. http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/divisions/dfbmd/diseases/shigellosis/
Niyogi SK (2005) Shigellosis. J Microbiol 43:133–143
Pajhani GP, Niyogi SK, Singh AK et al (2008) Molecular characterization of multidrug resistant Shigella species isolated from epidemic and endemic cases of Shigellosis. J Med Mic 57(7):856–863
Pike J (2007) Shigellosis-biological weapons. Global security. Global security, 23 Oct 2007. http://www.Globalsecurity.org/wmd/intro/bio-shigellosis.html. Accessed 7 Nov 2010
Baveja UK Shigellosis: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Department of Health and Human Services, NIH USA, http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/shigellosi/pages/
Taneja N (2007) Changing epidemiology of Shigellosis and emergence of Ciprofloxacin resistant Shigellae in India. J Clin Mic 45(2):678–679
Todar K (2011) Shigella and Shigellosis. 1–4, http:\\www.textbookofbacteriology.net
Trofa AF, Ueno-Olsen H, Oiwa R, Yoshikawa M (1999) Dr Kiyoshi Shiga: Discovery of the dysentery bacillus. Clinical Infect Dis 29(5):1303–1306. 9 May 2010 http://www.jstor.org/pss/4481998
US National Library of Medicine and the National Institute of Health (2010) Shigellosis. Medline Plus. (23 Mar 2010): 6 May 2010. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000295.htm
von Seidlein L, Kim DR, Ali M, Lee H, Wang X, et al (2006) A multicentre study of shigella diarrhoea in six asian countries: disease burden, clinical manifestations, and microbiology. PLoS Med 3(9):e353
WHO (2005) Shigellosis: disease burden, epidemiology and case management. Wkly Epidemiol Rec 80:94–99
WHO Initiative for Vaccine Research. Diarrhoeal Disease Burden. Shigellosis Feb 2009. Section 7
Wolf DC, Gianella RA (1996) Invasive pathogens. Consultations in Gastroenterology 381–384
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer India
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Baveja, U.K. (2014). Shigellosis: An Emerging Water-Related Public Health Problem. In: Singh, P., Sharma, V. (eds) Water and Health. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1029-0_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1029-0_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New Delhi
Print ISBN: 978-81-322-1028-3
Online ISBN: 978-81-322-1029-0
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)