The recent death of a girl from Kasaragod due to shigellosis has turned the spotlight on the need to be alert against a virulent form of the bacteria now being increasingly found among infected people in Kerala.
Health workers have been asked to detect early symptoms as the infection is different from usual diarrhoeal disorders. “Normally, the diarrhoea caused by shigella leads to blood in stools. However, most of the cases now being reported have only watery stools with no presence of blood or mucus,” K.K. Purushothaman, Professor, MES Medical College Hospital, Perinthalmanna, Malappuram, said.
He pointed out that their condition progressed very fast to critical and life-threatening state as well. In the case of Devananda, who succumbed to the infection in Kasaragod, this happened within 24 hours. As the shigella dysentery usually manifests after an incubation period of more than a day, nobody suspected its presence in her, Dr. Purushothaman noted. He said that the possibility of shiga toxin, which may cause neurological symptoms like coma or seizures in infected people, had been common earlier, but these were not lethal.
