Strains of the Shigella bacterium, responsible for a highly contagious diarrheal disease, are circulating in the territory, according to the Pasteur Institute. Problem: they are “highly” resistant to antibiotics.
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On March 15, the Institut Pasteur warned of the circulation in the territory of several strains of a bacterium called Shigellaresponsible of la shigellosereports 20 minutes. “A highly contagious diarrheal disease” responsible for several epidemics in the world, has defined a statement.
What do we know regarding the disease?
“Extremely contagious”shigellosis is a bacterial infection “whose transmission is faecal-oral”. It can be transmitted, for example, via contaminated food or water by faeces themselves contaminated by bacteria Shigella. But not only. It can also take the form ofsexually transmitted infection. “In recent years, S. sonnei and S. flexneri have become epidemic within the homosexual community masculine”we read in an information sheet written in January 2022 by the Institute.
Infections”can cause diarrhea of short duration (3-4 days) yielding spontaneously”. In detail, symptoms may manifest as abdominal pain, “very frequent bowel movements and numerous, glairo-bloody and purulent even sometimes hemorrhagic”, vomitings and high fever.
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Its bacteria, Shigella, generally circulates in industrialized or industrializing countries. “The disease mainly affects children living in poor regions and overpopulated areas of the planet where sanitary infrastructures and personal hygiene are insufficient”report the file.
Strains resistant to treatments
Recently, researchers from the National Reference Center for Escherichia coli, Shigella and Salmonella (CNR-ESS) at the Institut Pasteur have detected the appearance of strains of Shigella sonnei, the majority type, “highly resistant to antibiotics” In France. Their study was recently published in the journal Nature Communications.
The proportion of these strains “resistant to almost all antibiotics recommended for the treatment of shigellosis“has increased sharply since their discovery in France in 2015 with a peak in 2021, notes the press release.
These strainscalled XDR for “extensively drug-resistant”, have been observed in travelers returning from South Asia or Southeast Asia, in children during an epidemic in 2017, and in men who have sex with men .
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“For severe cases, the only antibiotics remaining effective are the carbapenems or colistin that should be administered intravenouslywhich makes the treatment more aggressive with a more complex follow-up in a hospital setting.”
Future epidemics?
For the Institut Pasteur, it is “completely justified, given the knowledge of previous epidemics, of to expect the next few years to new epidemics of shigellosis with these strains highly antibiotic resistant“. This is why it is essential to find treatments effective oral drugs to treat these XDR strains. Like Pasteur, the WHO is concerned regarding the emergence of the latter, to the point of classifying Shigella sonnei among the twelve priority pathogens for which it is urgent to find new vaccines or antibiotics.
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