The St. Charles County Department of Community Health and the Environment, Division of Public Health, recently sent out a press release to alert residents that shigellosis cases in daycare centers had increased in the last month. The news release can be found here:
http://www.scchealth.org/docs/doche/pr/092407_shigella.html
Information about shigellosis can be found in the news release linked above. There is also detailed information available at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disease page for shigellosis which can be found here:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/shigellosis_g.htm
We had seen a gradual increase in cases of shigellosis in St. Charles County in the two months preceding the recent upswing. Over the last year, hundreds of cases of shigellosis have been reported in other parts of the St. Louis metro area. Until recently, however, no significant increase had been detected in St. Charles County, only sporadic cases.
Since information on the disease, shigellosis, and the causative organism, Shigella, can be found by following the links above, I am not going to repeat it here. Rather, I want to describe very briefly how our public health department responded to the presence of shigellosis in the metro area, and later, to the increase in our county.
Although we did not see an increase in cases in this county, when it became apparent that other parts of the metro area were experiencing outbreaks of substantial numbers of cases, our Division of Public Health sent an alert to healthcare providers, hospitals and daycare centers in our jurisdiction. The alert described the situation in other areas, discussed the disease and provided information on prevention. This was sent out about six months prior to the sudden increase in our county. It may have delayed the increase which recently occurred and which is still substantially less than in other affected jurisdictions. This type of proactive prevention is an important aspect of public health practice. Preventing or lessening the impact of a potential disease outbreak is always front and center.
Once the incidence began to increase significantly in St. Charles County it was decided that a news release might serve to alert not only medical professionals and daycare centers but also parents and citizens to the increased risk of Shigella infection. That is why the press release was specific in describing the disease and how to prevent it. Knowledge empowers our residents and, in effect, makes them partners, along with health professionals, daycare centers and schools, in preventing disease spread.
Diarrhea is one of the major symptoms of shigellosis. Lack of adequate hand-washing and contamination and inadequate disinfection of diapering surfaces are the primary ways the disease is spread. To the extent we are able to encourage more frequent and adequate hand-washing, the alert we issued may have other beneficial effects. Influenza and the common cold, as well as a number of other diseases, can be prevented or the incidence reduced with adequate hand-washing. It is amazing how often simple steps can have a beneficial outcome and Public Health is full of such examples when it comes to preventing or slowing disease spread. But that in itself may be a good topic for another monthly message.