The CDC issued a warning to health care providers this week about an uptick nationwide in “extensively drug-resistant” shigellosis, which is a bacterial infection that affects the intestines and causes inflammatory diarrhea.
There are about 450,000 shigellosis infections every year. The CDC reports that 5% of all infections in 2022 were extensively drug-resistant, or XDR, up from zero in 2015.
An infection is considered extensively drug-resistant when it doesn’t respond to antibiotics that are commonly used to treat it, such as azithromycin, ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, and others.
“XDR Shigella bacteria have limited antimicrobial treatment options, are easily transmissible, and can spread antimicrobial resistance genes to other enteric bacteria,” the CDC wrote in an overview for an upcoming meeting next week about the increase in infections.
H/T Fox News (read more at FoxNews.com)
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