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Fiona fox's blog
Shigella is a bacterium that causes shigellosis, bloody or prolonged diarrhoea that can lead to severe dehydration. It has historically been mainly a problem affecting children in low and middle-income countries as well as sporadic travel-associated illness in other countries, but sexually transmitted strains have been rising in in western countries since the 2000s.
A study led by the University of Cambridge and published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases uses genomic epidemiology to look at bacterial isolates referred for national surveillance from 138 laboratories across 15 UK health regions between 2004 and 2020. The team investigated whether sexually-transmitted shigella spread more rapidly, and also looked at the influence of antimicrobial resistance on pathogen dynamics in different groups: travel-associated cases; presumptive MSM (men who have sex with men) cases; and non-pMSM cases.
Journalists dialled in to this briefing to hear from authors of the paper about their study, and to ask their questions.
Speakers will include:
Prof Kate Baker, Principal Investigator in the Department of Genetics, Cambridge Infectious Diseases, University of Cambridge; and senior author of the study
Julia Marshall, an MPhil student in Population Health Sciences, Pathogen Dynamics Unit, University of Cambridge; and first author of the study
This Briefing was accompanied by an SMC Roundup of comments.