Highly resistant to antibiotics, Shigellosis is progressing rapidly across France, warns the Institut Pasteur.
A highly contagious diarrheal disease, shigellosis or bacillary dysentery, is a disease caused by Shigella sonnei, “a bacterium of the digestive tract”, describes the institute. It is generally transmitted by the faecal-oral route through food or water contaminated with faecal matter and occurs mainly in tropical regions.
After contamination, the bacterium invades the cells of the intestinal wall and the colonic mucosa, which leads to significant inflammation associated with severe tissue destruction. The associated symptoms are generally abdominal pain, vomiting, bloody diarrhea or fever.
According to a study published recently in the journal Nature Communications, strains of Shigella sonnei highly resistant to antibiotics have emerged in recent years in France.