A drug-resistant strain of bacteria that causes diarrhea is spreading in the United States, federal health officials warned Thursday.
Travelers are bringing a drug-resistant strain of the Shigella sonnei bacteria to the United States and spreading it to other people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"These outbreaks show a troubling trend in Shigella infections in the United States," Dr. Tom Frieden, CDC director, said in an agency news release.
The CDC said that S. sonnei bacteria resistant to the antibiotic ciprofloxacin (Cipro) sickened 243 people in 32 states and Puerto Rico between May 2014 and February 2015.
Shigella, which causes about 500,000 cases of diarrhea in the United States every year, spreads easily from person to person through contaminated food and water.
The bacteria can spread especially quickly among certain groups, such as youngsters in child care facilities, homeless people, and gay and bisexual men, which is what happened in the recent clusters, according to the CDC report.
"Drug-resistant infections are harder to treat and because Shigella spreads so easily between people, the potential for more -- and larger -- outbreaks is a real concern," Frieden said. "We're moving quickly to implement a national strategy to curb antibiotic resistance because we can't take for granted that we'll always have the drugs we need to fight common infections."
In the United States, most Shigella is already resistant to the antibiotics ampicillin and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. Worldwide, Shigella resistance to Cipro is on the rise, the CDC said in the news release.
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Travelers are bringing a drug-resistant strain of the Shigella sonnei bacteria to the United States and spreading it to other people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"These outbreaks show a troubling trend in Shigella infections in the United States," Dr. Tom Frieden, CDC director, said in an agency news release.
The CDC said that S. sonnei bacteria resistant to the antibiotic ciprofloxacin (Cipro) sickened 243 people in 32 states and Puerto Rico between May 2014 and February 2015.
Shigella, which causes about 500,000 cases of diarrhea in the United States every year, spreads easily from person to person through contaminated food and water.
The bacteria can spread especially quickly among certain groups, such as youngsters in child care facilities, homeless people, and gay and bisexual men, which is what happened in the recent clusters, according to the CDC report.
"Drug-resistant infections are harder to treat and because Shigella spreads so easily between people, the potential for more -- and larger -- outbreaks is a real concern," Frieden said. "We're moving quickly to implement a national strategy to curb antibiotic resistance because we can't take for granted that we'll always have the drugs we need to fight common infections."
In the United States, most Shigella is already resistant to the antibiotics ampicillin and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. Worldwide, Shigella resistance to Cipro is on the rise, the CDC said in the news release.
WebMD
