The Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services is alerting medical providers in the Eureka area to be vigilant of a possible local shigella outbreak as the spread is believed to be greater than first thought.
The Friday update for the medical community sent out by Humboldt County Health Officer Ian Hoffman states the series of confirmed and suspected shigella cases have been linked to locations on Eureka’s U.S. Highway 101 corridor. The update also alerted medical providers to consider testing and treating for shigella in an effort to get a handle on the situation.
“Based on current and ongoing investigations we suspect the spread may be greater than our current understanding. Therefore, we are alerting medical providers in the area to consider testing for and treating shigella to help both understand the extent of the problem and to help stop the spread of this highly contagious bacterial illness,” the update reads.
Health care providers who have patients exhibiting acute diarrheal illness or living in the Highway 101 corridor area are advised to order PCR testing of stool to determine whether they are infected with the bacterial disease. The document states that a lack of access to lab orders should not be a barrier to ordering stool tests.
In a DHHS video released Friday afternoon, public health nurse Daniel Tran confirmed five local individuals have been infected with shigella and the county is investigating 11 more possible cases in Eureka’s greater waterfront area.
In the video, Tran also provided basic information on the disease.
“Shigella is a gastrointestinal bacteria, which is really just a fancy way of saying that it causes diarrhea, upset stomach, gas, and that kind of stuff. Typically this bacteria is found within a person’s feces or stool and even though that’s where it’s typically found, you could still spread it if you’ve made contact with different surfaces that are not clean and disinfected,” he said.
Shigella is transmitted by oral ingestion, meaning it must travel into the body through food or drink. The bacteria can come into contact with food and drink through contact with surfaces where the bacteria is located.
“That means you do not have to worry about it being transmitted through the air, like if someone sneezed on you or any of that. This is really a surface problem,” Tran said.
Kawsar Talaat, associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and shigella therapy researcher, told the Times-Standard the bacteria causing this disease often appears in low- and middle-income nations. Sporadic cases do pop up in the U.S., however.
“Generally, it’s in places where there’s poor hygiene and lack of access to adequate water and sanitation,” she said.
Humboldt County DHHS first made a public statement regarding shigella on Feb. 25, stating public and environmental health officials had been working to contain three lab-confirmed shigella cases and two more suspected cases identified in Eureka in the previous month. The bacteria causing this disease is believed to have possibly spread through laundromats in Eureka where an infected person is believed to have washed contaminated clothing.
As reported by the Times-Standard, two laundry facilities in Eureka linked to the first shigella cases were sanitized in the days after the Feb. 25 announcement.
The Self-Serve Laundromat in Eureka was one of two laundromats named as potential vectors for a local shigella outbreak, but the laundromat has since been cleaned and disinfected. (Jackson Guilfoil/Times-Standard)
Talaat explained that detergent is enough to kill the shigella bacteria, but a laundry facility used by people without access to sanitation can still be a vector for shigella.
“If you don’t have access to adequate water and sanitation, you could have your person and your belongings contaminated with stool and shigella is incredibly infectious. You only need a few bacteria to make you sick … so if somebody doesn’t have access to say hand-washing and then they use the bathroom they could contaminate themselves, their clothing or the environment,” Talaat said.
She also added homeless people are in a vulnerable position during outbreaks of similar diseases propagated through fecal matter, such as hepatitis A.
“Homeless people in the United States have some of the same challenges as people living in the poorest areas of other parts of the world in terms of access to adequate clean water and sanitation. And so, if we improve conditions for them, these things would be greatly improved,” Talaat pointed out.
To prevent further spread, people with shigellosis should not share food with others, abstain from entering pools and hot tubs, abstain from sexual intercourse for at least two weeks after symptoms clear and, if possible, stay home from school or jobs in the healthmcare, childmcare and food service industries.
Both medical professionals encourage basic cleanliness to prevent contracting infections.
“We are heavily emphasizing that everybody have really good hand hygiene and if you have door knobs or anything that has a high traffic, where lots of people are using it, then disinfect regularly with bleach or high-content of alcohol solution,” Tran said.
“Just wash your hands,” Talaat emphasized.
More information on disinfecting after any shigella exposure is available online at https://www.cdc.gov/shigella/shigella-toolkit.html.
Mario Cortez can be reached at 707-441-0526.
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Originally Appeared Here