2023 Highlights
- 28% of cases with travel information available traveled internationally before onset of illness.
- 86% of cases in 2023 were in adults.
- There were no outbreaks of shigellosis identified in 2023.
In 2023, 271 Shigella cases were reported. Of those, 84 were culture-confirmed (1.5 per 100,000 population). The remaining 187 were only tested by a culture-independent diagnostic test (CIDT) and were not subsequently confirmed. The 84 culture-confirmed Shigella cases are similar to the 86 cases reported in 2022, but 31% less than the median annual number of cases reported from 2013 to 2022 (median, 121 per year; range, 79 to 554). S. flexneri accounted for 50 (60%) cases, S. sonnei for 31 (37%) cases, S. boydii for one (1%) case, and S. dysenteriae for one (1%) case. The species was not identified for one (1%) case. Culture-confirmed cases ranged in age from 1 to 91 years (median, 36 years). Seven percent of cases were les than 5 years of age; 86% of cases were 18 years of age or older. Sixty-five percent of cases were male. Twenty-five (30%) cases were hospitalized. No cases died.
In 2023, of the 271 reported cases, 269 patients were positive for Shigella by a CIDT conducted in a clinical laboratory. Of the 257 corresponding specimens that were received at MDH, 81 (32%) were subsequently culture-confirmed. The remaining 176 cases only had specimens that were positive by a CIDT conducted at a clinical laboratory and were not subsequently culture-confirmed. The median age of the CIDT-positive only cases was 34 years (range, 10 months to 90 years). Twenty-five (13%) CIDT-positive only cases were hospitalized; the median hospital stay was 2 days (range, 1 to 6 days). No CIDT-positive only cases died.
Fifty-two percent of cases reported either non-white race (38 of 81 cases) or Hispanic ethnicity (16 of 81 cases). Of the 58 cases for whom travel information was available, 16 (28%) travelled internationally (8 of 21 [38%] S. sonnei and 7 of 35 [20%] S. flexneri). Eighty percent of cases resided in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, including 50% in Hennepin County and 15% in Ramsey County.
There were no outbreaks of shigellosis identified in 2023.