Shigelosis outbreak in the city of Lujan, Argentina

Fil: Della Gaspera, Anabella. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Departamento de Bacteriología. Servicio Enterobacterias; Argentina.Fil: Caffer, María Inés. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Departamento de Bacteriología. Servicio Enterobacterias; Argentina.Fil: Panagópulo, Marcela. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Departamento de Bacteriología. Servicio Enterobacterias; Argentina.Fil: Viñas, María R. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Departamento de Bacteriología. Servicio Enterobacterias; Argentina.Fil: Barrios, Hebe A. Departamento de Ciencias Básicas, Universidad Nacional de Luján, Luján, Buenos Aires, Argentina.Fil: Viora, Silvia S. Departamento de Ciencias Básicas, Universidad Nacional de Luján, Luján, Buenos Aires, Argentina.Fil: Anselmo, Ricardo J. Departamento de Ciencias Básicas, Universidad Nacional de Luján, Luján, Buenos Aires, Argentina.The aim of this study was to describe an outbreak of Shigella sonnei that occurred in the city of Lujan, Buenos Aires, Argentina, in July 2012. Five individuals were affected after eating a hand-made Viennese-style pastry at a family gathering. All of them presented with fever, joint pain, chills and non-bloody diarrhea containing mucus. Stool cultures were performed in all cases and the samples taken from the pastry ingredients were analyzed microbiologically. S.sonnei was isolated and identified in all the patients involved as well as in the almond cream filling. The isolates were analyzed for determining the antimicrobial susceptibility and genetic profiles by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The results showed the genetic relationship among the isolates, confirming that the cases occurred due to the patients' exposure to the same source of infection, i.e., the almond cream. Being the almond cream an industrially-manufactured ingredient, an initial contamination could have been unlikely; however contamination might have occurred as a result of manipulation in the bakery