New antibiotic-resistant food poisoning has made its way to the U.S.

Shigella, a new drug-resistant bacteria contaminating food and water has made its way into the United States and appears to now be circulating not just from international travelers.

By Nicole Oran on April 03, 2015 10:35 am

A new, multidrug-resistant pathogen, Shigella, is now circulating in the United States. The CDC reported on how the outbreak has spread since May of last year in Thursday’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Shigella is not pretty. The bacteria is spread through contaminated food and water and infects your intestines, causing crampy rectal pain, bloody or mucus-laced diarrhea and vomiting. At least 243 people have gotten sick and about 20 percent were hospitalized over the past year in the U.S., which doesn’t sound too terrible. But the real problem with this particular bacteria is that it is resistant to the go-to drug for the bacteria: ciprofloxacin.

“If rates of resistance become this high, in more places, we’ll have very few options left for treating Shigella with antibiotics by mouth,” epidemiologist Anna Bowen, who led the study, said, according to NPR. If this happens, doctors will have to resort to IV antibiotics.

Within the 32 states where Shigella has shown up in patients, some traveled international to places like India, Dominican Republic and Morocco. But some hadn’t, which indicates that it’s beginning to circulate locally.

“This outbreak really highlights that multidrug-resistance in other countries is also a problem for the U.S.,” Bowen says. “Cases [in the U.S.] have continued to accrue over the month since we put together this report. So we’re monitoring it carefully,” Bowen said.

Most of the time the infection will go away on its own after about a week, but in rare cases it can lead to blood infection and death. About 100 million people get infected with Shigella each year around the world with a concentration in Asia, NPR reports, and about 600,000 die from it.

Bowen says focusing on hygiene, like washing your hands and also being careful about what you eat is the best way to prevent shigellosis. When anyone gets sick due to this bacteria, they should avoid going to an antibiotic first. Trying over-the-counter anti-diarrheal options first is the way to go.