Dysentery facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids Dysentery
Synonyms	Bloody diarrhea

A depiction of a soldier with dysentery in the 'F' & 'H' Force Hospital, Canchanburi, Siam. Artist: Charles Thrale, 1943
Symptoms	Bloody diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever
Complications	Dehydration
Duration	Less than a week
Causes	Usually Shigella or Entamoeba histolytica
Risk factors	Contamination of food and water with feces due to poor sanitation
Diagnostic method	Based on symptoms, Stool test
Prevention	Hand washing, food safety
Treatment	Drinking sufficient fluids, antibiotics (severe cases)
Frequency	Occurs often in many parts of the world
Deaths	1.1 million a year

Dysentery is a sickness that causes a severe stomach upset, often leading to diarrhea with blood. It was once called "bloody flux." Besides diarrhea, people might have a fever, stomach pain, and feel like they still need to go to the bathroom even after they've gone. A serious problem that can happen is dehydration, which means your body loses too much water.

Dysentery is usually caused by tiny germs. These are often bacteria called Shigella (which causes shigellosis) or a type of tiny living thing called an amoeba, specifically Entamoeba histolytica (which causes amoebiasis). Sometimes, other germs or even certain chemicals can cause it. This sickness can spread from person to person. You can get it if food or water is dirty with tiny bits of poop because of poor sanitation (bad hygiene). When you have dysentery, your intestines, especially the large intestine, become swollen and irritated.

To help prevent dysentery, it's very important to wash your hands well and follow food safety rules, especially when visiting places where the sickness is common. Most of the time, dysentery gets better on its own in about a week. But it's super important to drink plenty of fluids, like special oral rehydration solution, to avoid dehydration. Doctors might give antibiotics for more serious cases, especially if someone got sick while traveling. Medicines that just slow down diarrhea, like loperamide, are usually not recommended by themselves, but can sometimes be used with antibiotics.

Shigella bacteria cause many cases of diarrhea each year, mostly in parts of the world where hygiene is a challenge. Another germ, Entamoeba histolytica, also causes many cases, especially where sanitation is poor. This amoeba is often found in Central and South America, Africa, and Asia. People have known about dysentery for a very long time, even since the days of Hippocrates, an ancient Greek doctor.

Signs and Symptoms

What Dysentery Feels Like

The most common type of dysentery is usually not too severe. It often causes mild stomach aches and frequent, loose poop or diarrhea. These symptoms usually start 1 to 3 days after getting sick and often go away within a week.

How often you need to go to the bathroom, how much liquid poop comes out, and if there's blood or mucus, depends on the tiny germ causing the illness. Sometimes, people might also have trouble digesting milk products for a while. In more serious cases, symptoms can include strong stomach cramps, fever, feeling very weak (like shock), or confusion.

In very serious cases, a person can lose a lot of fluid quickly. More often, individuals will have diarrhea with blood, along with severe stomach pain, pain around the bottom, and a slight fever. Sometimes, people might lose weight quickly and have muscle aches. Feeling sick to your stomach (nausea) and throwing up are not very common with dysentery.

Rarely, the tiny amoeba germ can travel through the body's blood and spread outside the intestines. If this happens, it can cause problems in other body parts like the brain, lungs, or most often, the liver.

Causes of Dysentery

How You Get Dysentery

A picture showing what intestines with dysentery can look like.

Dysentery is caused by infections from tiny germs like bacteria or parasites. Viruses usually don't cause it. These germs get into your large intestine when you swallow contaminated food or water, or touch your mouth with dirty hands or objects.

Once inside, these germs hurt the lining of your intestines. This causes your body to fight back with an immune response. This fight can lead to a high temperature, painful muscle spasms (cramps) in your stomach, and swelling. Your body's immune cells also release chemicals to fight the infection, which can cause more damage.

Because of this, your body might not absorb nutrients well. You can also lose too much water and important minerals through your poop. In serious cases, the germs can even get into your bloodstream. Losing blood through diarrhea can sometimes lead to Anemia, which means you don't have enough healthy red blood cells.

Some bacteria that cause diarrhea with blood either invade the lining of your intestines directly, or they release harmful substances called toxins. These toxins damage the cells in your intestines, leading to the bloody diarrhea. This is different from other toxins that cause watery diarrhea, which usually don't damage cells but instead change how they work.

What doctors mean by "dysentery" can sometimes be a little different depending on where they are or their medical field. For example, some groups like the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) define it as "diarrhea with visible blood." Other definitions might be broader. But generally, it means there's enough damage to the intestines for blood to be seen in the poop.

Amoebic Dysentery

Amoebic dysentery, also called amoebiasis, happens when you get infected by a tiny germ called an amoeba. The specific amoeba is named Entamoeba histolytica. It is mostly found in warm, tropical parts of the world. It's very important to treat this infection correctly. If not treated well, the amoeba can stay hidden in your body for years and cause serious problems later.

When amoebae are ready to leave an infected person's body, they form a protective shell around themselves. This group of amoebae in a shell is called a cyst. These cysts pass out of the body in poop and can live outside for a while.

If hygiene is not good, for example, if poop isn't disposed of safely, these cysts can get into food and water. If someone else then eats or drinks this contaminated food or water, they can also get infected. Amoebic dysentery is common in places where human waste is used to help plants grow.

Once a cyst enters a new person's mouth, it travels to the stomach. The shell protects the amoebae from stomach acid. From the stomach, the cyst goes to the intestines, where it opens up. The amoebae are released and start the infection. They can dig into the walls of the intestines, causing small sores. Then, the cycle can repeat.

Bacillary Dysentery

Another common type of dysentery is called bacillary dysentery. This is caused by an infection from bacteria called Shigella, which leads to shigellosis. Even though "bacillary" sounds like it could mean any rod-shaped bacteria, this term usually refers specifically to dysentery caused by Shigella.

Other Bacteria That Cause Dysentery

Some types of Escherichia coli (often called E. coli) bacteria can also cause diarrhea with blood. The most well-known type is called O157:H7. These E. coli bacteria produce a harmful substance called Shiga toxin, which causes the illness.

Diagnosis

How Doctors Find Out If You Have Dysentery

Doctors can usually figure out if you have dysentery by asking about your symptoms and doing a quick check-up. It's important not to confuse dysentery with just seeing fresh blood when you poop, which is called hematochezia and can have different causes.

Physical Exam

During a check-up, a doctor might notice that your mouth, skin, or lips look dry. This is a sign of dehydration. You might also feel pain when the doctor gently presses on your lower stomach.

Stool and Blood Tests

Doctors often examine stool samples (poop samples) in a lab to find the specific germ causing the dysentery. Sometimes, they need to check several samples because the number of germs can change each day. Blood tests can also be done to check the levels of important minerals and salts in your body, which can be affected by the illness.

Prevention

How to Prevent Dysentery

To prevent dysentery, it's very important to wash your hands often and carefully. Also, follow food safety rules, especially when you are traveling in places where dysentery is common.

Future Vaccines

Currently, there isn't a vaccine to protect against Shigella infection, but scientists are working on developing several. A vaccine could help reduce how often and how severely children get diarrhea, especially in areas with fewer resources. The World Health Organization (WHO) has long aimed to develop a Shigella vaccine. We know that people can develop natural protection after being exposed to the germ, so a vaccine should be possible.

Treatment

How Dysentery is Treated

The main way to treat dysentery is by making sure you drink enough fluids. This is often done using oral rehydration therapy, which is a special drink that helps replace lost water and salts. If someone can't drink enough because they are throwing up or have very severe diarrhea, they might need to go to the hospital for fluids given through a vein (intravenous fluids).

Ideally, doctors try to find out exactly which germ is causing the infection before giving medicine. But if lab tests aren't available, they might give a combination of medicines. This could include a medicine to kill amoebae and an antibiotic to treat any bacterial infection.

If doctors suspect shigellosis and it's not too severe, they might let it run its course, which usually takes less than a week. For severe cases, antibiotics like ciprofloxacin might be used. However, many Shigella germs are becoming resistant to common antibiotics. If needed, doctors might save antibiotics for those most at risk, like young children, people over 50, or anyone who is dehydrated or malnourished.

Amoebic dysentery is often treated with two different medicines, such as metronidazole and paromomycin.

Prognosis

What to Expect After Treatment

With the right treatment, most cases of amoebic and bacterial dysentery get better within 10 days. Most people make a full recovery within two to four weeks after starting treatment. If the illness is not treated, how well someone recovers depends on their immune system and how severe the sickness is. Severe dehydration can slow down recovery and greatly increase the risk of serious problems, including death.

Epidemiology

How Common is Dysentery?

While exact numbers are hard to get, it's estimated that Shigella caused the deaths of many children under five and adults over five in 2013. Amoebiasis infects over 50 million people each year, leading to many deaths, mostly in less developed areas.

History

Dysentery Through Time

The Shigella bacteria evolved as humans spread out of Africa many thousands of years ago.

In the past, parts of the kapok tree were used in traditional medicines to treat dysentery by people in rainforest regions.

In 1915, an Australian scientist named Fannie Eleanor Williams helped soldiers in Greece who were sick with dysentery from the Gallipoli battle. Her research helped doctors better understand and diagnose the disease.

A type of bacteria called Bacillus subtilis was used as a medicine in America and Europe from 1946 to help treat gut illnesses like dysentery. However, its use became less popular after modern antibiotics were introduced.

Notable Cases

Dysentery has affected many famous people throughout history:

1183: Henry the Young King died of dysentery at the castle of Martel.
1216: John, King of England died of dysentery at Newark Castle.
1270: Louis IX of France died of dysentery in Tunis while leading his troops.
1307: Edward I of England caught dysentery on his way to the Scottish border and died.
1422: King Henry V of England died suddenly, likely from dysentery, during a siege.
1596: Sir Francis Drake, a famous explorer, died of dysentery while anchored off the coast of Portobelo.
1605: Akbar, a powerful ruler of the Mughal Empire, died of dysentery.
1873: The famous explorer David Livingstone died of dysentery.
1942: During World War II, many prisoners of war in a Japanese camp in Thailand became sick with dysentery due to poor conditions. This event, known as the Selarang Barracks incident, forced the Australian commanders to surrender to their captors.

Images for kids

A Red Army soldier dies of dysentery after eating unwashed vegetables. This is a common way of contracting dysentery. From a health advisory pamphlet given to soldiers.
Allied prisoners of war with dysentery in a Japanese camp in Thailand in 1943