All issues > Volume 26(5); 1983

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1983;26(5):455-462. Published online May 31, 1983.

Prevalence Rate of Shigella Subgroup Infection & Changing Pattern of Their Antibiotics Susceptibility During Last Twenty Years.

Kyung Sin Kim¹, Myung Sung Moon¹, Keun Soo Lee¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Hanyang Universityt Seoul，Korea

Abstract

Among bacterial enteritis of hospitalized Korean children, shigellosis was the most frequent diarrheal disease. During the ten-year period(1972〜 1981), 319 strains of shigella were isolated from 319 different diarrheal patients; 261 of 319 strains(81.8%) were Shigella flexneri, 49(15.3%) were S.sonnei, 5 and 4(1.5% & 1.2%) were S. boydii and S. dysenteriae, respectively. Every year S. flexneri appeared to be the most frequent organisms without exception and were ranging from 50% to 98%. One hundred ninety four out of 319 patients were male(60%). Peak incidence occured in the September and 217 cases(68%) were seen during the four-month period (July-November). Thirty five of 319(11%) were under one year of age, 61(19%) were 1 〜2 years, 59(18%) were 2〜3 years, 89(29%)were 3〜5 years, 63(20%) were 5〜9 years and 12(4%) were 10〜 16 years old. Toxic encephalopathy occured in 38 patients and S. flexneri appeared to be the most frequent organisms associated with convulsive disorder, 32(88%) out of 36 patients. Concerning the antibiotics susceptibility of S. flexneri, they were sensitive to chloramphenicol, tetracycline and neomycin during the years of I960 decade, however they became resistant to chloramphenicol, tetracycline and neomycin but sensitive to ampicillin, carbenicillin during the period of 1970 to 1975. Moreover they became resistant to ampicillin and carbenicillin but sensitive to colistin, aminoglycosides, cephalosporin and dibekacin sulfate during the period of 1975 to 1981. Judging from those susceptibility changing pattern the possible development of multiresistant shigella strain might surely be anticipated in the near future because of wide spread antibiotics abuse in Korea.

Keywords :Shigellosis; Changing pattern of antibiotics susceptibility.