Dysentery

Within the evidence supplied, dysentery refers to an intestinal infectious syndrome causing diarrhea, with clinical descriptions in the sources linking it to invasive bacterial disease and to intestinal parasitic infection presentations ^[1][2]. One source describes shigellosis as a syndrome caused by invasion of the epithelium lining the terminal ileum, colon, and rectum by Shigella species, which is relevant to dysenteric illness ^[2]. Another source notes that intestinal parasitic infections can include dysentery among their clinical manifestations ^[1].

The source material describes dysenteric illness as ranging from diarrhea to more inflammatory presentations, including bloody stool in the bacterial syndrome described for shigellosis and bloody to mucoid diarrhea in swine dysentery ^[2][3]. The shigellosis source further notes fever, prostration, and abdominal cramps, and states that a broad array of uncommon but often severe intestinal and extraintestinal complications can occur ^[2]. The intestinal parasitic infections review lists diarrhea, dysentery, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, nutritional deficiency, iron deficiency anemia, anal and perianal itching, and rarely intestinal obstruction as general clinical presentations ^[1]. In pigs, swine dysentery is described as severe enteric disease with reduced growth performance and variable mortality, but that animal-specific evidence should not be generalized to human disease ^[3].

The available sources indicate that dysenteric syndromes occur globally, but the burden is not described uniformly across etiologies ^[1][2]. For shigellosis, endemic infection among children aged 1-4 years in low-income and middle-income settings is said to constitute most of the disease burden, and the disease occurs in people of all ages ^[2]. Intestinal parasitic infections are described as a global health problem affecting over one billion people worldwide, occurring predominantly in the developing world but also in developed countries, particularly among immunocompromised patients ^[1]. Swine dysentery is reported as endemic in many parts of the world and to have re-emerged in parts of North America since 2007 after having largely disappeared from much of the United States by the mid-1990s ^[3].

The provided sources do not give a single transmission route for dysentery as a whole. For shigellosis, the causative organism is described as highly contagious, but the passage does not specify the exact route of spread ^[2]. For intestinal parasitic infections, the source states that the parasites have similarities in their mode of transmission and life cycle, but does not enumerate the mechanisms ^[1]. Additional source-backed detail on exposure pathways is not yet available.

Source-backed high-risk groups are not consistently defined across the provided material. For shigellosis, the main burden is reported among children aged 1-4 years living in low-income and middle-income settings, and the disease occurs in all ages ^[2]. For intestinal parasitic infections, the review highlights immunocompromised patients as a group in whom these infections are frequently seen in developed countries ^[1]. The swine dysentery paper identifies grower-finisher pigs as the most often affected group, but this is animal-specific and not directly applicable to human dysentery surveillance ^[3].

The source material supports prevention through public-health control rather than a specific preventive regimen. For swine dysentery, control and elimination methods are mentioned as having been effective in reducing disease occurrence in the United States, and renewed interest in control is noted where the disease has reappeared ^[3]. For intestinal parasitic infections, the review states that appropriate preventive measures are essential for successful control, but does not specify which measures are most effective ^[1]. The shigellosis source notes emerging interest in vaccines and in recommendations related to antibiotic therapy, but vaccine use or schedules are not described in the provided text ^[2].

For surveillance purposes, dysentery should be read as a syndrome with more than one possible etiologic frame in the provided evidence, including invasive bacterial disease and intestinal parasitic infection ^[1][2]. The source set supports attention to global occurrence, concentration of shigellosis burden in young children in low-income and middle-income settings, and the presence of intestinal parasitic infections in both developing and developed countries ^[1][2]. Animal literature also indicates that dysentery-like syndromes can re-emerge after prior apparent elimination in some settings, underscoring the importance of trend monitoring where local incidence had previously fallen ^[3].

1. 1 Ahmed M et al. Intestinal Parasitic Infections in 2023. Gastroenterology Res. 2023 Jun. PMID: 37351081. doi: 10.14740/gr1622. PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37351081/
2. 2 Kotloff KL et al. Shigellosis. Lancet. 2018 Feb 24. PMID: 29254859. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)33296-8. PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29254859/
3. 3 Burrough ER et al. Swine Dysentery. Vet Pathol. 2017 Jan. PMID: 27288432. doi: 10.1177/0300985816653795. PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27288432/
4. 4 Dysentery. New England Journal of Medicine. 1944. doi: 10.1056/nejm194401062300107. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1056/nejm194401062300107
5. 5 Dysentery. BMJ. 1955. doi: 10.1136/bmj.1.4913.601-a. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.1.4913.601-a
6. 6 Dysentery. Scientific American. 1848. doi: 10.1038/scientificamerican06241848-313e. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican06241848-313e

ICD-10

A03-A06

ICD-11

1A03-1A05

Total cases

1.9M

Total deaths

332

Peak month

2010-08

Coverage

3 reporting countries · 2010-01-01 → 2026-06-01