How to Prevent Shigella Infection
To prevent Shigella outbreaks, the following preventive steps should be taken:
- Frequent and careful handwashing to prevent the spread of Shigella is important among all populations. Handwashing among children should be frequent and supervised by an adult in daycare centers and homes with children who have not been fully toilet trained.
- If a child in diapers has shigellosis, everyone who changes the child’s diapers should be sure the diapers are disposed of properly in a closed-lid garbage can, and should wash his or her hands and the child’s hands carefully with soap and warm water immediately after changing the diapers. After use, the diaper changing area should be wiped down with a disinfectant such as diluted household bleach or bactericidal wipes. When possible, young children with a Shigella infection who are still in diapers should not be in contact with uninfected children.
- Basic food safety precautions and disinfection of drinking water prevents outbreaks of shigellosis from food and water. However, people with shigellosis should not prepare food or drinks for others until they have been shown to no longer be carrying Shigella bacteria, or if they have had no diarrhea for at least 2 days. At swimming beaches, having enough bathrooms and handwashing stations with soap near the swimming area helps keep the water from becoming contaminated. Daycare centers should not provide water play areas.
- Simple precautions taken while traveling to the developing world can prevent shigellosis. Drink only treated or boiled water, and eat only cooked hot foods or fruits you peel yourself. The same precautions prevent other types of traveler’s diarrhea.
- At swimming pools, maintaining a chlorine level of at least 0.5 PPM will kill Shigella. At swimming beaches, children not yet toilet trained should be excluded from public swimming areas; stay clear if this rule is broken. Children with diarrhea should never be taken to public swimming areas.
Shigella bacteria remain active throughout a person’s illness and for a week or two after an infected individual recovers. It is possible for a person to be infected with Shigella without exhibiting symptoms. These individuals are asymptomatic, but can pass the illness to others (CDC, 2009a), and are known as “carriers.”
No group of individuals is immune to shigellosis, but certain individuals are at increased risk. Small children acquire Shigella at the highest rate. Persons infected with HIV experience shigellosis much more commonly than other individuals (Baer et al., 1999).
The spread of Shigella from an infected person to others can be avoided by frequent and careful handwashing with soap.