Evaluation of shigellosis prevalence and antibiotic resistance in patients with acute diarrhea in Kashan, Iran

Diarrhea diseases are among health complications in the third world countries, and developing countries. since shigellosis has been recognized as a cause of diarrhea, specially in warm seasons, this study was conducted on specimens referred to the Central Laboratory of Kashan during 2000-2001 to evaluate antibiotic resistances. In this descriptive study 734 patients referred to the Centeral Laboratory of Kashan during 2000-2001 were investigated. Demographic characteristics and stool specimens were studied for culturing and serotyping through a standard method. Then their antibiotic sensitivity was determined using to disk diffusion method, descriptive analysis. 56 (7.6%) of the cultures were infectious. with as the most case were applied to the results. The most rate of antibiotic senitivity was ciprofloxacin, gentamycin, ceftizoxim (100%), nalidixic acid (96.4%) and the most antibiotic resistrance was against cephalotin (72.1%), co-trimaxazol (58.9%) and ampicillin (38.9%). S flexneri was the most common strain which is similar to the findings of others in the developing countries. Due to the low resistance of Shigella species to nalidixic acid, it is suggested as a first choice of treatment although all of the species were sensitive to ciprofloxacin and gentamicin.