Health - Resources and discussion for everything health-related

4542 readers

356 users here now

Health: physical and mental, individual and public.

Discussions, issues, resources, news, everything.

See the pinned post for a long list of other communities dedicated to health or specific diagnoses. The list is continuously updated.

Nothing here shall be taken as medical or any other kind of professional advice.

Commercial advertising is considered spam and not allowed. If you're not sure, contact mods to ask beforehand.

Linked videos without original description context by OP to initiate healthy, constructive discussions will be removed.

Regular rules of lemmy.world apply. Be civil.

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

WhoRoger@lemmy.world

RoyalEngineering@lemmy.world

Awa@lemmy.world

Sexually transmitted diarrhea cases soaring in US — and its growing resistant to medicine (www.independent.co.uk)

submitted 19 hours ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/health@lemmy.world

30 comments fedilink hide all child comments

There are 450,000 infections each year in the US including 240,000 cases that do not respond to regular treatment

Cases of the highly contagious and often drug-resistant bacterial disease, Shigella, are rising across the U.S., with dozens of doctors issuing warnings.

Shigella infections, known as shigellosis, can cause bloody diarrhea, dysentery, fever, vomiting, dehydration, stomach cramps, seizures, blood infections and in rare cases, death.

Experts have long been aware that drug-resistant strains of Shigella disproportionately cause severe illness in children under the age of 5. But doctors from health departments across the U.S. announced in April that white men are now the most susceptible to infections from drug resistant Shigella.

That findings could change the way hospitals respond to the pervasive illness, the doctors noted in a federal report.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

The bacteria also spreads during sexual contact that involves the anus, putting men who have sex with men at a higher risk of infection.

In the U.K., the spread of the disease through sex grew 15 percent faster annually from 2015-2020 compared to spread through other methods of transmission, according to a July study.

A few simple steps can prevent illness. Wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds before you eat, engage in sexual activity or change a diaper, according to the clinic. Avoiding sexual contact for at least two weeks with anyone who has diarrhea or who recently recovered from diarrhea is also advised.

It's a warning not to have sex with people with diarrhea. Also, there are various interesting things about the disease when sexually transmitted vs not, for instance a study linked by the article theorizes that being sexually transmitted is why the disease is becoming resistant to medication:

It has been speculated that the acquisition of azithromycin resistance for Shigella moving into sexual transmission networks was driven by bystander resistance.9,10,12 This phenomenon refers to the evolution of antimicrobial resistance in an off-target organism following treatment for a co-infection. In the case of shigellosis-affected MSM in the UK, this was assumed to be driven by the overlapping epidemic of gonorrhoea, for which there is an intensive screen and treat programme.9,12 Our results are consistent with this hypothesis.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 4 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

thats not the only way it spread. fecal matter on the hands of someone preparing food can. which is much more scary. fecal matter on hands is unfortunately a not uncommon thing. I was so happy during covid when so many restaurants started getting and mandating the light plastic gloves. wash hands signs are just not adequate.

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

Yes you are right, but the sexual transmission aspect has reasons to mention it. One thing I'm unclear about is how frequently this disease spreads sexually vs by other means, I couldn't find this mentioned in the article and if the study mentioned it I can't parse the academic jargon well enough to see it.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

my problem is calling it an std, because it will run rampant with out any sexual activity happening in a community. A monestary could have an outbreak. To me it minimizes it by looking at one way it can transmit when its likely not even the most common. Food borne pathogens are a much bigger deal.

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 7 hours ago

I guess that's fair, but the wording of the title to me doesn't imply that it can't spread other ways. I wish we did know whether it's the most common though because that is very relevant to whether the headline is misleading.