CDC recommends educating healthcare professionals about the spread of XDR Shigella infection in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East
“Given these potentially serious public health concerns, CDC asks healthcare professionals to be vigilant about suspecting and reporting cases of XDR Shigella infection to their local or state health department and educating patients and communities at increased risk about prevention and transmission,” the advisory said.
There are no recommendations for treatment for patients with drug resistant shigellosis if they develop more severe symptoms, despite the fact that it is possible to recover without any antimicrobial treatment.
A recent report by the United Nations said roughly 5 million deaths worldwide were associated with antimicrobial resistance in 2019 and the annual toll is expected to increase to 10 million by 2050 if steps are not taken to stop the spread of antimicrobial resistance.
The new forms of the bug are resistant to all five of the antimicrobial treatments that are typically used, which was never seen before 2016 and has been increasing in prevalence ever since, says Dr. Louise Francois Watkins, a medical officer at the CDC, but not all five, she told NPR.
The stomach bug is more common in adults than it is in children. The CDC said that men who have sex with men, people experiencing homelessness, international travelers and people living with HIV are more likely to get XDR Shigella.
“XDR Shigella has a real, alarming capacity to spread globally, especially among these vulnerable populations,” says Dr. Naeemah Logan, a CDC medical officer.
Handwashing and sanitizing are the most important measures people can take to protect themselves from Shigella, Logan tells NPR, and people who are sexually active should wash sex toys — and themselves — with soap and water before and after sex.
Cabo Verde: Italy’s most popular destination for travelers fleeing from central Asia according to an alert from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
An alert was sent by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control a week before the CDC in order to warn of travelers who had visited Cabo Verde. The alert stated that the most likely route was through food, and that many cases were linked to all-inclusive hotels. Affected guests returned home to the U.K., the U.S., and nations across the European Union.