What Is Shigellosis?
Shigellosis (pronounced: shih-guh-lo-sus) is an intestinal infection caused by Shigella (pronounced: shih-geh-luh) bacteria. The bacteria produce toxins that can attack the lining of the large intestine, causing swelling, ulcers on the intestinal wall, and bloody diarrhea. Symptoms can range from just watery diarrhea to bloody diarrhea, fever, and abdominal pain.

Shigella bacteria can contaminate food and water supplies, especially in areas where the sanitation is not adequate. However, most of the time the bacteria are spread when a person comes into contact with another person's stool (poop). That's one of the reasons why it's important to wash your hands after using the restroom. It takes as few as 10 of these bacteria to cause an infection. That means that Shigella bacteria can spread easily within families, schools, child-care centers, nursing homes, and other institutions.

Shigellosis can affect people of any age, including teens. It's especially common in children ages 2 to 3 years old because they're often not toilet trained yet or they don't wash their hands after using the bathroom.

What Are Its Signs and Symptoms?
The severity of the diarrhea sets shigellosis apart from regular diarrhea. When someone has shigellosis, the first bowel movement is often large and watery. Later bowel movements may be smaller, but the diarrhea may have blood and mucus in it.
Other symptoms of shigellosis include:

• abdominal cramps

• high fever

• loss of appetite

• nausea and vomiting

• painful bowel movements

In very severe cases of shigellosis, a person may have convulsions (seizures), a stiff neck, a headache, extreme tiredness, and confusion. Shigellosis can also lead to dehydration and in rare cases, other complications, like kidney failure.

How Is Shigellosis Diagnosed and Treated?

If you have severe diarrhea, especially if you are bleeding from your anus or have blood in your bowel movements, ask your parent to call your doctor right away. The doctor may take a sample of your stool to see if it contains Shigella bacteria. Blood tests and other tests may also be needed to look for other possible causes of the symptoms, especially if you have a large amount of blood in your stool.

Depending on the severity of your symptoms, your doctor will suggest fluids and may prescribe antibiotics to treat shigellosis. Antibiotics can help you recover faster and prevent the bacteria from spreading to other people. Most doctors suggest that people avoid using any antidiarrheal medications because they can make the infection worse.