Shigellosis epidemiology in Gabonese adults.

Objective - To assess epidemiology of shigellosis. Material and methods - This retrospective study was carried out in the serv ice of internal medicine at the Jeanne-Ebori Foundation Hospital over a fiv e year period (1992-1996). Results - This disease occurred in an endemo-epidemic mode, with renewed ou tbreaks in the rain season. The dysentery syndrome was predominant Of the 1 73 species of Shigella isolated in stools, 100 were S. dysenteriae, 70 were S. flexneri, two were S. sonnei, and one was S. boydii. S. flexneri was fo und five times in blood cultures. During the 1995-1996 period, an acute eme rgence of Shigella dysenteriae type I (Shiga bacillus) was observed. It was immediately multiresistant to antibiotics commonly used in Gabon (ampicill in, amoxicillin, tetracycline, cotrimoxazole, and chloramphenicol). (C) 199 9 Elsevier, Paris.