...less medical jargon in a 'Quick Glance' format!
Shigellosis Arthritis is an infectious disease caused by a group of bacteria called Shigella. Most who are infected with Shigella develop diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps starting a day or two after they are exposed to the bacteria. The diarrhea is often bloody. Shigellosis usually resolves in 5 to 7 days. Persons with shigellosis in the United States rarely require hospitalization. A severe infection with high fever may be associated with seizures in children less than 2 years old. Some persons who are infected may have no symptoms at all, but may still pass the Shigella bacteria to others.
Symptoms:
Although health experts don't know why, some people take in Shigella bacteria without becoming ill. Others develop only a brief fever, or a brief fever with mild diarrhea that goes away on its own. About 25% of patients, however, develop high fever, abdominal cramping and severe diarrhea that can contain blood, mucus and pus associated with shigellosis arthritis. These people can have 10 to 30 bowel movements each day, along with a persistent urge to have a bowel movement that can lead to an abnormal protrusion of the rectum. Rarely, Shigella bacteria can affect other parts of the body far from the digestive tract. When this happens, there can be seizures, confusion or coma, kidney failure, arthritis, rashes or other symptoms.
Causes: Shigellosis: Shigella bacterial infection of the digestive tract.
The disease is caused when virulent Shigella organisms attach to, and penetrate, epithelial cells of the intestinal mucosa. After invasion, they multiply intracellularly, and spread to contiguous epitheleal cells resulting in tissue destruction. Some strains produce enterotoxin and Shiga toxin
Treatment: Persons with mild infections usually recover quickly without antibiotic treatment. However, appropriate antibiotic treatment kills Shigella bacteria, and may shorten the illness by a few days. The antibiotics commonly used for treatment are ampicillin, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (also known as Bactrim or Septra), ceftriaxone (Rocephin), or, among adults, ciprofloxacin. Some Shigella bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics. This means some antibiotics might not be effective for treatment. Using antibiotics to treat shigellosis can sometimes make the germs more resistant. Therefore, when many persons in a community are affected by shigellosis, antibiotics are sometimes used to treat only the most severe cases. Antidiarrheal agents such as loperamide (Imodium) or diphenoxylate with atropine (Lomotil) can make the illness worse and should be avoided.
