There are 450,000 infections each year in the US including 240,000 cases that do not respond to regular treatment
Cases of the highly contagious and often drug-resistant bacterial disease, Shigella, are rising across the U.S., with dozens of doctors issuing warnings.
Shigella infections, known as shigellosis, can cause bloody diarrhea, dysentery, fever, vomiting, dehydration, stomach cramps, seizures, blood infections and in rare cases, death.
Experts have long been aware that drug-resistant strains of Shigella disproportionately cause severe illness in children under the age of 5. But doctors from health departments across the U.S. announced in April that white men are now the most susceptible to infections from drug resistant Shigella.
That findings could change the way hospitals respond to the pervasive illness, the doctors noted in a federal report.
why is this being called sexually transmitted. stds generally are exclusively gotten from sexual contact or its way harder to get other ways. that is not so with this disease. saying its an std kinda minimizes it.
It’s a warning not to have sex with people with diarrhea. Also, there are various interesting things about the disease when sexually transmitted vs not, for instance a study linked by the article theorizes that being sexually transmitted is why the disease is becoming resistant to medication:
My friend just say “people who have anal sex”. You’re excluding straight people who do butt stuff, and your excluding transfemme tops who do butt stuff. Saying “people who have anal sex” includes those groups as well as those who eat ass but otherwise don’t put things in butts.
It’s not just gay and bisexual men who put things in butts. Not even close.
thats not the only way it spread. fecal matter on the hands of someone preparing food can. which is much more scary. fecal matter on hands is unfortunately a not uncommon thing. I was so happy during covid when so many restaurants started getting and mandating the light plastic gloves. wash hands signs are just not adequate.
Yes you are right, but the sexual transmission aspect has reasons to mention it. One thing I’m unclear about is how frequently this disease spreads sexually vs by other means, I couldn’t find this mentioned in the article and if the study mentioned it I can’t parse the academic jargon well enough to see it.
my problem is calling it an std, because it will run rampant with out any sexual activity happening in a community. A monestary could have an outbreak. To me it minimizes it by looking at one way it can transmit when its likely not even the most common. Food borne pathogens are a much bigger deal.
I guess that’s fair, but the wording of the title to me doesn’t imply that it can’t spread other ways. I wish we did know whether it’s the most common though because that is very relevant to whether the headline is misleading.
there is no way sexual contact is more common with this type of pathogen than someone preparing food without washing their hands. that is such a common spread vector I just can’t possibly see it.
In one of the studies cited by this one it’s implied that the number is around 30% (in Australia):
And 60% for the specific strain associated with sexual transmission and higher antibiotic resistance:
Although I’m also reading that it differs a lot by region because of different hygiene/public health standards so the numbers might be different elsewhere.
yeah this is a small sample size for a disease that has been around a long time. When it comes down to it I feel it wierd to call it sexual transmitted. Any disease that can be transmitted by any bodily secretion or inhalation for that matter can be transmitted with sexual contact. sexual contact is a very specific and not common circumstance. as much as std’s are scary they are a subset that is kinda easy to avoid but also sucks to avoid.