Shigella

Increasing resistance of Shigella to therapy drugs has been reported, which has now been declared as a public health threat by the World Health Organization (WHO). A recent study on Shigella from Victoria demonstrated that rates of resistance to therapy drugs was high and attributed to two-MSM lineages. A recent outbreak of multi-drug resistant (MDR) Shigella in Northern Australia has demonstrated that the mobile genetic elements associated with the MDR seeing in the MSM-lineages can move into Australian endemic lineages and impacting vulnerable populations.

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Projects

National snapshot of XDR Shigella and implementation

Aim: Establish a national surveillance system for Shigella and integrate onto AusTrakka.

1. To transition national surveillance protocols onto AusTrakka (e.g. typing and AMR tools).  
2. To integrate Shigella surveillance with public health agencies.  
3. Undertake national snapshot over a 12-month period to unravel genomic epidemiology and XDR Shigella and identify transmission clusters.

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