CDC: Proportion of Extensively Drug-Resistant Shigella Isolates Increasing

TUESDAY, April 14, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- The proportion of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) Shigella isolates in the United States increased from 2011-2015 to 2023, according to research published in the April 9 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.Naeemah Logan, M.D., from the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues describe trends and epidemiologic characteristics of XDR shigellosis by analyzing Shigella isolates submitted to the CDC molecular surveillance network for enteric pathogens during Jan. 1, 2011, to Oct. 20, 2023.The researchers found that 510 (3.0 percent) of the 16,788 isolates with resistance data during the study period were XDR. There was an increase in the percentage of XDR isolates from 0 percent during 2011 to 2015 to 8.5 percent in 2023. Species information was available for 505 of the 510 XDR isolates; of these, 65.9 and 34.1 percent were Shigella sonnei and Shigella flexneri, respectively. The median patient age was 41 years among those with XDR shigellosis, and 86.2 percent of patients were men. Overall, 76.2 percent of those with available travel history reported no recent domestic travel and 82.4 percent reported no recent international travel. A total of 54 of the 116 persons with available HIV status (46.6 percent) reported HIV co-infection."Because no oral antimicrobial agents are FDA-approved, prevention, early detection, antimicrobial susceptibility testing-guided therapy, and timely reporting are important to protect populations at higher risk for XDR Shigella infection," the authors write.Abstract/Full Text.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

CDC: Proportion of Extensively Drug-Resistant Shigella Isolates Increasing

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