The Institut Pasteur reported on Thursday, March 16, the increasing distribution of a highly antibiotic-resistant strain of the bacterium
Shigella sonnei
.
Very contagious, this pathogen is transmitted between humans via feces (much more rarely via contaminated food).
The resulting infection, known as shigellosis, causes febrile diarrhea that is sometimes bloody and abdominal pain.
This disease, which usually affects poor countries, causes 70,000 deaths each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Researchers from the National Reference Center (CNR) responsible for microbiological monitoring of this bacterium noted 106 cases of resistant infections in France between September 2020 and February 2022, most of them involving homosexuals contaminated by sexual transmission.
The bacterium has been known for a very long time.
"
This strain was detected for the first time in France in 2015,
relates Professor François-Xavier Weill...
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