Abstract

ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND :
Shigellosis is the most common cause of epidemic dysentery and affecting all age groups especially in the first (2) years of life, It is a major cause of childhood mortality and morbidity in developing countries .
OBJECTIVE:
To study the extent of shigella gastroenteritis among children presented with acute diarrhea.
METHODS:
Three hundred sixteen patient were included in the study (186 males and 130 females),admitted to the children welfare teaching hospital, medical city complex, Baghdad, suffering from diarrhea and their ages ranged from 2 months-10 years, over a 4 months period (from the first of December 2007 till the end of March 2008), History and physical examination were carried out, general stool examination and stool culture were done by taking fresh stool samples collected from these children and submitted to serial investigations.
RESULTS :
The study showed that out of 316patients suffering from diarrhea, 22(6.9%) patients with shigella positive, 16(6.2%)had watery diarrhea, 6(10.7%) had bloody diarrhea, 262(82.9%) were less than 2 years. Out of 22patients with shigella positive 12(54.5%) of them were less than 2 years. Most of the patients presented with diarrhea consume unboiled tap water 192 (60.8%), with 8 (36.4%) of them are Shigella species positive. The use of filtration and chlorination of water at home shows no shigella species diarrhea and only 2 (0.7%) Shigella species negative diarrhea. Diarrhea is the presenting symptom followed by fever 20(90.9%), vomiting 14(63.64%), Then abdominal pain 4(18.18%).
CONCLUSION:
Shigellosis was found to be the third most common cause of infectious bacterial diarrhea following Escherichia coli and campylobacter jejuni and also the third most common cause of bloody diarrhea following entamoeba histolytica and Campylobacter jejuni, and the relationship between water supply and its sterilization with shigella infection is significantly different between people who consume purified and sterilized water than those who did not.