What You Need To Know
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been monitoring an increase in extensively drug-resistant (XDR) Shigella infections.
- The infection spreads easily from one person to another—and it only takes a small amount of Shigella to cause illness.
- It is diagnosed when a laboratory identifies Shigella bacteria in the stool of an ill person. The test could be a culture that isolates the bacteria or a rapid diagnostic test that detects the genetic material of the bacteria.
What You Need To Do
- Consider shigellosis in the differential diagnosis of acute diarrhea, especially among patients at a higher risk for infection, the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) advises.
- Order a stool culture for patients who will require antimicrobial treatment and request reflex cultures on culture-independent diagnostic test (CIDT), if possible.
- Stay vigilant about suspect XDR Shigella infections and use antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) results to guide antimicrobial treatment selection.
- Report all cases, clusters and outbreaks to your local health department where your facility is located. (Contact information is available at localhealth.nj.gov.)
- Interview cases promptly using the Shigellosis Case Report Worksheet to obtain exposures and risk factors.
- Enter all information gathered through case investigations into the DSQ (Sources of Infection and Risk Factors) section within CDRSS.
For More Information
- Read this detailed information from the CDC and share with patients as needed.
- Contact the NJDOH Foodborne and Waterborne Illness team at nj.fb@doh.nj.gov with any questions regarding this message.