Although the incidence of bacillary dysentery in China has been declining progressively, a considerable disease burden still exists. Few studies have analyzed bacillary dysentery across China and knowledge gaps still exist in the aspects of geographic distribution and ecological drivers, seasonality and its association with meteorological factors, urban-rural disparity, prevalence and distribution of Shigella species. Here, we performed nationwide analyses to fill the above gaps. Geographically, we found that incidence increased along an east-west gradient which was inversely related to the economic conditions of China. Two large endemically high-risk regions in western China and their ecological drivers were identified for the first time. We characterized seasonality of bacillary dysentery incidence and assessed its association with meteorological factors, and saw that it exhibits north-south differences in peak duration, relative amplitude and key meteorological factors. Urban and rural incidences among China's cities were compared, and disparity associated with urbanization level was invariant in most cities. Balanced decrease of urban and rural incidence was observed for all provinces except Hunan. S. flexneri and S. sonnei were identified as major causative species. Increasing prevalence of S. sonnei and geographic distribution of Shigella species were associated with economic status. Findings and inferences from this study draw broader pictures of bacillary dysentery in mainland China and could provide useful information for better interventions and public health planning.

Three episodes of illness outbreak, with major symptoms of acute abdominal pain and diarrhea, occurred in 1990 to 1991 in the army forces stationed in Beijing. Bacillary dysentery outbreak caused by Shigella dysentariae were confirmed with epidemiological investigations and pathogen identification. Drug sensitivity tests with Kirby-Bauer method for the strain isolated showed it had obvious resistance to 13 of 14 kinds of antibiotics tested. Detection of plasmid with Birnboim method showed most of the strains had R-plasmid of 120-140 Md and few had small plasmid. It suggested inherent connection between drug-resistance of the strains and plasmid.

Bacillary dysentery has long been a considerable health problem in southwest China, however, the quantitative relationship between anthropogenic and physical environmental factors and the disease is not fully understand. It is also not clear where exactly the bacillary dysentery risk is potentially high. Based on the result of hotspot analysis, we generated training samples to build a spatial distribution model. Univariate analyses, autocorrelation and multi-collinearity examinations and stepwise selection were then applied to screen the potential causative factors. Multiple logistic regressions were finally applied to quantify the effects of key factors. A bootstrapping strategy was adopted while fitting models. The model was evaluated by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), Kappa and independent validation samples. Hotspot counties were mainly mountainous lands in southwest China. Higher risk of bacillary dysentery was found associated with underdeveloped socio-economy, proximity to farmland or water bodies, higher environmental temperature, medium relative humidity and the distribution of the Tibeto-Burman ethnicity. A predictive risk map with high accuracy (88.19%) was generated. The high-risk areas are mainly located in the mountainous lands where the Tibeto-Burman people live, especially in the basins, river valleys or other flat places in the mountains with relatively lower elevation and a warmer climate. In the high-risk areas predicted by this study, improving the economic development, investment in health care and the construction of infrastructures for safe water supply, waste treatment and sewage disposal, and improving health related education could reduce the disease risk.

The Shigella bacteria cause bacillary dysentery, which remains a significant threat to public health. The genus status and species classification appear no longer valid, as compelling evidence indicates that Shigella, as well as enteroinvasive Escherichia coli, are derived from multiple origins of E.coli and form a single pathovar. Nevertheless, Shigella dysenteriae serotype 1 causes deadly epidemics but Shigella boydii is restricted to the Indian subcontinent, while Shigella flexneri and Shigella sonnei are prevalent in developing and developed countries respectively. To begin to explain these distinctive epidemiological and pathological features at the genome level, we have carried out comparative genomics on four representative strains. Each of the Shigella genomes includes a virulence plasmid that encodes conserved primary virulence determinants. The Shigella chromosomes share most of their genes with that of E.coli K12 strain MG1655, but each has over 200 pseudogenes, 300 approximately 700 copies of insertion sequence (IS) elements, and numerous deletions, insertions, translocations and inversions. There is extensive diversity of putative virulence genes, mostly acquired via bacteriophage-mediated lateral gene transfer. Hence, via convergent evolution involving gain and loss of functions, through bacteriophage-mediated gene acquisition, IS-mediated DNA rearrangements and formation of pseudogenes, the Shigella spp. became highly specific human pathogens with variable epidemiological and pathological features.

The bacterial pathogen Shigella flexneri causes 270 million cases of bacillary dysentery (blood in stool) worldwide every year, resulting in more than 200,000 deaths. A major challenge in combating bacillary dysentery is the lack of a small-animal model that recapitulates the symptoms observed in infected individuals, including bloody diarrhea. Here, we show that similar to humans, infant rabbits infected with S. flexneri experience severe inflammation, massive ulceration of the colonic mucosa, and bloody diarrhea. T3SS-dependent invasion of epithelial cells is necessary and sufficient for mediating immune cell infiltration and vascular lesions. However, massive ulceration of the colonic mucosa, bloody diarrhea, and dramatic weight loss are strictly contingent on the ability of the bacteria to spread from cell to cell. The infant rabbit model features bacterial dissemination as a critical determinant of S. flexneri pathogenesis and provides a unique small-animal model for research and development of therapeutic interventions.

Understanding the potential links between floods and bacillary dysentery in China is important to develop appropriate intervention programs after floods. This study aimed to explore the distributed lag effects of floods on bacillary dysentery and to identify the vulnerable groups in Huaihua, China. Weekly number of bacillary dysentery cases from 2005-2011 were obtained during flood season. Flood data and meteorological data over the same period were obtained from the China Meteorological Data Sharing Service System. To examine the distributed lag effects, a generalized linear mixed model combined with a distributed lag non-linear model were developed to assess the relationship between floods and bacillary dysentery. A total of 3,709 cases of bacillary dysentery were notified over the study period. The effects of floods on bacillary dysentery continued for approximately 3 weeks with a cumulative risk ratio equal to 1.52 (95% CI: 1.08-2.12). The risks of bacillary dysentery were higher in females, farmers and people aged 15-64 years old. This study suggests floods have increased the risk of bacillary dysentery with 3 weeks' effects, especially for the vulnerable groups identified. Public health programs should be taken to prevent and control a potential risk of bacillary dysentery after floods.

Bacillary dysentery (BD) remains a significant public health issue, especially in developing countries. Evidence assessing the risk of BD from temperature is limited, particularly from national studies including multiple locations with different climatic characteristics.

This study aimed to analyse the epidemiological characteristics of bacillary dysentery (BD) caused by Shigella in Chongqing, China, and to establish incidence prediction models based on the correlation between meteorological factors and BD, thus providing a scientific basis for the prevention and control of BD.

Shigellosis (previously bacillary dysentery) was the primary diarrhoeal disease of World War 1, but outbreaks still occur in military operations, and shigellosis causes hundreds of thousands of deaths per year in developing nations. We aimed to generate a high-quality reference genome of the historical Shigella flexneri isolate NCTC1 and to examine the isolate for resistance to antimicrobials.

Shigella flexneri is historically regarded as the primary agent of bacillary dysentery, yet the closely-related Shigella sonnei is replacing S. flexneri, especially in developing countries. The underlying reasons for this dramatic shift are mostly unknown. Using a zebrafish (Danio rerio) model of Shigella infection, we discover that S. sonnei is more virulent than S. flexneri in vivo. Whole animal dual-RNAseq and testing of bacterial mutants suggest that S. sonnei virulence depends on its O-antigen oligosaccharide (which is unique among Shigella species). We show in vivo using zebrafish and ex vivo using human neutrophils that S. sonnei O-antigen can mediate neutrophil tolerance. Consistent with this, we demonstrate that O-antigen enables S. sonnei to resist phagolysosome acidification and promotes neutrophil cell death. Chemical inhibition or promotion of phagolysosome maturation respectively decreases and increases neutrophil control of S. sonnei and zebrafish survival. Strikingly, larvae primed with a sublethal dose of S. sonnei are protected against a secondary lethal dose of S. sonnei in an O-antigen-dependent manner, indicating that exposure to O-antigen can train the innate immune system against S. sonnei. Collectively, these findings reveal O-antigen as an important therapeutic target against bacillary dysentery, and may explain the rapidly increasing S. sonnei burden in developing countries.

The root of Rosa roxburghii Tratt (Ci Li Gen) is a kind of Chinese ethnomedicine in Gui Zhou province, used for the treatment of abdominal pain, acute bacillary dysentery, gastroenteritis and other diseases in human and livestock.

Strains of Shigella spp. can cause shigellosis, or bacillary dysentery. that is a public health problem worldwide. The aim of this study was to describe the population structure and genetic relatedness of multidrug resistant S. sonnei and S. flexneri isolated during a one year period from children with diarrhea in Tehran, Iran.

Shigella is a major pathogen responsible for bacillary dysentery, a severe form of shigellosis. Severity of the disease depends on the virulence of the infecting strain. Shigella pathogenicity is a multi-gene phenomenon, involving the participation of genes on an unstable large virulence plasmid and chromosomal pathogenicity islands.

Ficus palmata (Fig), are distributed in different parts of the world, and are used in traditional medicine to treat various ailments including inflammation, tumor, epilepsy, jaundice, influenza and bacillary dysentery. The present study aimed to evaluate the antidiarrheal, antisecretary, antispasmodic, antiulcer and anti motility properties of Ficus palmata.

Shigella spp. are the primary causative agents of bacillary dysentery. Since its emergence in the late 1980s, the S. flexneri serotype 1c remains poorly understood, particularly with regard to its origin and genetic evolution. This article provides a molecular insight into this novel serotype and the gtrIC gene cluster that determines its unique immune recognition.

The completion of numerous genome sequences introduced an era of whole-genome study. However, many genes are missed during genome annotation, including small RNAs (sRNAs) and small open reading frames (sORFs). In order to improve genome annotation, we aimed to identify novel sRNAs and sORFs in Shigella, the principal etiologic agents of bacillary dysentery.

Bacillary dysentery caused by Shigella spp. remains an important cause of the crisis in low-income countries. It has been observed that Shigella species have become increasingly resistant to most widely used antimicrobials. In this study, the antimicrobial resistance, virulence and plasmid profile of clinical isolates of Shigella species were determined.

Coptidis rhizoma (CR) is the dried rhizome of Coptis chinensis Franch., C. deltoidea C. Y. Cheng et Hsiao or C. teeta Wall. (Ranunculaceae) and is commonly used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for the treatment of various diseases including bacillary dysentery, typhoid, tuberculosis, epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis, empyrosis, pertussis, and other illnesses.

Shigella dysenteriae serotype 1 (SD1) causes the most severe form of epidemic bacillary dysentery. Quantitative proteome profiling of Shigella dysenteriae serotype 1 (SD1) in vitro (derived from LB cell cultures) and in vivo (derived from gnotobiotic piglets) was performed by 2D-LC-MS/MS and APEX, a label-free computationally modified spectral counting methodology.

Shigella dysenteriae is one of the most virulent pathogens causing bacillary dysentery and is responsible for high mortality in infants. To reduce the load of antibiotic therapy for treating shigellosis, this study was carried out to assess the ex vivo effect of novel probiotic lactobacilli, isolated from infant's stool samples, on killing S. dysenteriae type 1 residing in the rat macrophages.