Gird your toilets, everyone: superbug strains of Shigella bacteria, a common diarrhea-causing infection, are becoming a larger problem.<\/p>\n
Federal and state health officials detailed the trend in a recent report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since 2011, they found, an increasing percentage of Shigella cases documented nationwide have shown extensive resistance to all commonly used antibiotics. More needs to be done to prevent, track, and develop treatments against this growing public health danger, they warn.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Extensively drug-resistant] Shigella infection is an emerging concern in the United States,\u201d the authors wrote in their paper, published<\/a> late last week in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).<\/p>\n Hardy bugs <\/p>\n Antibiotic resistance has become a widespread public health threat over time. Antibiotic resistant bacteria are now estimated<\/a> to kill over 1.2 million people worldwide every year. By 2050, that annual death toll could reach<\/a> 10 million, putting it on par<\/a> with yearly cancer deaths.<\/p>\n Though there are many kinds of superbug bacteria out there, extensively drug-resistant, or XDR, Shigella might be one of the most worrying ones. These bacteria can resist all classes of antibiotics routinely used to treat them, including azithromycin, ceftriaxone, and ciprofloxacin. As of now, there is no oral antibiotic approved to handle these hardy infections.<\/p>\n Shigella infection, or shigellosis, is a nationally notifiable disease, meaning doctors are obligated to report any detected cases to their health departments. Since at least 2015, CDC and local health officials have been noticing an increase in cases of XDR shigellosis. According to the report\u2019s authors, though, the patterns of this rise haven\u2019t been fully fleshed out until now.<\/p>\n