A variety of bacteria cause food poisoning, including Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, Campylobacter jejuni, Escherichia coli, Shigella, and Clostridium botulinum.
Bloody diarrhea, sometimes called dysentery, is produced by EHEC, EIEC, some types of Salmonella, some types of Shigella, and Yersinia.
Campylobacter is the leading cause of bacterial diarrhea worldwide, responsible for more cases (2 million or more) of bacterial diarrhea in the United States than Shigella and Salmonella combined.
Cholera and Shigella remain two diseases of great concern in developing countries, and research to develop long-term vaccines against them is underway.
E. coli, another cause of food-borne illness, can be mistaken for Shigella both by physicians and the laboratory.
Four different groups of Shigella can affect humans; of these, S. dysenteriae generally produces the most severe attacks, and S. sonnei the mildest.
Other examples of enterobacteria are species of Salmonella, Shigella, Klebsiella, Enterobacter, Serratia, Proteus, and Yersinia.
Shigella accounts for 10 to 20 percent of all cases of diarrhea worldwide, and in any given year infects over 140 million persons and kills 600,000, mostly children and the elderly.
Shigella also produce a number of toxins (Shiga toxin and others) that increase the amount of fluid secretion by the intestinal tract.
Shigella are extremely infectious bacteria, and ingestion of just 10 organisms is enough to cause dysentery.
Shigella are identified by their appearance under the microscope, along with various chemical tests.
Shigella are very resistant to the acid produced by the stomach, and this allows them to easily pass through the gastrointestinal tract and infect the colon (large intestine).
Shigella bacteria are dangerous because they attack the intestinal wall and cause bleeding ulcers.
Shigella infection spreads through food or water contaminated by human waste.
Shigella is a common cause of diarrhea in travelers to developing countries.
Shigella is only one of several organisms that can cause dysentery, but the term bacillary dysentery is usually another name for shigellosis.
Shigella share several of the characteristics of a group of bacteria that inhabit the intestinal tract.
Shigellosis is an infection of the intestinal tract by a group of bacteria called Shigella.
Such symptoms are most likely due to other organisms such as rotavirus, Salmonella, Shigella, or Escherichia coli.
Symptoms of Shigella infection appear about 36-72 hours after eating contaminated food.
The symptoms of food poisoning by Shigella organisms may resemble meningitis and a differential diagnosis must be made by isolating the causative bacteria.