Evaluation of Culture-Positive Shigellosis Patients during Bloody Diarrhea Epidemics in Isfahan Province during 2015-2021

Hossein Hatami; Mahdi Farsi; Abolfazl Hajari

doi:10.18502/ssu.v30i8.11011

Hossein Hatami Department of Public Health, School of Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Mahdi Farsi Department of Disease Prevention and Control, Isfahan Health Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Abolfazl Hajari Department of Disease Prevention and Control, Isfahan Health Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/ssu.v30i8.11011

Keywords: Diarrhea, Shigellosis, Outbreak, Epidemic.

Abstract

Introduction: As one of the diseases transmitted through water and food, shigellosis is one of the health problems in developing countries. This study was conducted in order to investigate the outbreaks of bloody diarrhea caused by Shigella in patients with positive cultures in Isfahan province during 2014-2016.

Methods: This study was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study. Information of 280 infected patients with positive Shigella cultures based on demographic information, age, sex, place of residence, clinical symptoms, history of food consumption, and the date of illness and referral to medical centers were analyzed using SPSS16 software, checking percentages and frequencies, chi-square and t-tests were investigated.

Results: The percentage of female patients of this study was 51.1% and male was 48.9% with a mean age of 25.53± 21.36; 27.1% of patients were housewives and 94.3% were Iranians. 97.1% of patients, in addition to positive cultures, red blood cells were also reported in microscopic examination of their stool samples. . 23.26% of patients had fever, 19.86% had nausea and 16.99% had obvious bloody diarrhea. 26.88% of patients had a history of consuming vegetables and 94.1% of them referred to medical centers in the first three days to receive medical services. Furthermore, 45.5% of these patients were hospitalized and 54.5% were treated as outpatients and finally 100% of patients recovered.

Conclusion: Community education for food hygiene is one of the essential educational needs and also the development of vegetable preparation centers in the form of packaging and having a health code is one of the essential needs in terms of health and food security.