Dozens of kids diagnosed with Shigella in Kansas City

Normally, there are only 10 cases of shigella per year in Kansas City.

Health officials in Missouri are warning parents about an infectious disease that is affecting hundreds of young children. Therefore, it has been scary that during 2015 we’ve had 15 hours more illness using this system bacterium.

The recent outbreak, which has followed the said trend, has mostly affected daycare and elementary school children.

Shigella is a unsafe rod-shaped bacteria, closely linked to salmonella, and it causes shigellosis among humans.

In fact, Shigella is one of the main contributing factors of diarrhea worldwide, but it also has other symptoms such as vomiting, nausea, abdominal cramps, flatulence and painful bowel movements. If it is left untreated, the health department said the organism can remain in stool for four weeks or more.

Shigellosis is spread from person-to-person through the fecal-oral route.

Because Shigella is resistant to gastric acid, a person can get infected with as little as 10 organisms.

Once the disease is contracted, it can be cured through antibiotic treatment, but culture testing is required in order to determine the antimicrobials that can destroy the bacteria.

According to communicable disease prevention division manager, Tiffany Wilkinson, what is highly worrying about this particular outbreak is that they are “seeing three different strains that are resistant to certain antibiotics”, so doctors should be on the lookout of what kind of medications they prescribe. And, so far, health officials have not managed to find the reason or source behind the extensive infection throughout the state. The increase was significant after that as over 134 cases have been reported since then.

Preventative measures include proper and thorough hand washing and drying with the use of paper towels, disposing diapers correctly and disinfecting diaper changing areas and keeping children with diarrhea out of shared water like swimming pools and spas for two weeks after the end of the diarrhea.