gastroenteritis

CDC: Antibiotic-Resistant Shigella Becoming More Common

Cases of Shigella that show reduced susceptibility to the fluoroquinolone ciprofloxacin have increased recently, as well as those resistant to the macrolide azithromycin the CDC has warned.

In response to these findings, the CDC is requesting reports of any possible treatment failures that occur in patients with Shigella infections who are treated with azithromycin or ciprofloxacin.

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They issued the following recommendations to clinicians:

  • Patients should be monitored carefully if antibiotic treatment is necessary.
  • If you identify a possible treatment failure, consider consulting an infectious disease specialist to identify other potential treatment options, contact your local health department to report the failure, collect stool specimens for culture, and require that submission of the Shigella isolate be expedited.

“CDC is particularly concerned about people who are at high risk for multidrug-resistant Shigella infections and are more likely to require antibiotic treatment, such as men who have sex with men, patients who are homeless, and immunocompromised patients. These patients often have more severe disease, prolonged shedding, and recurrent infections.”

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Update – CDC recommendations for managing and reporting shigella infections with possible reduced susceptibility to ciprofloxacin [press release]. June 7, 2018. https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/han00411.asp.