Shigella bacteria resistant to all five antibiotics normally used against them went from undetectable in US surveillance samples to 8.5 percent of tested isolates over a little more than a decade, according to a CDC analysis of nearly 17,000 samples.
There is no FDA-approved oral antibiotic for these strains. That is the operative fact for anyone who develops severe diarrheal illness and needs treatment, and it is why the CDC report emphasizes laboratory testing before an antibiotic is chosen rather than empiric prescribing.
