Drug-resistant Shigella rises in U.S. and England

Shigella, a bacterium that causes intestinal illness, is becoming more resistant to antibiotics in the United States and England, while surveillance shows rising diagnoses in England in a group presumed to involve sexual transmission. The findings raise concerns about treatment options for severe infections, but the available evidence does not establish that antibiotics prescribed for other sexually transmitted infections cause Shigella resistance. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed nearly 17,000 Shigella isolates and found that extensively drug-resistant strains rose from 0% of isolates during 2011-2015 to 8.5% in 2023. The figures describe samples in the analysis, not the share of all infections nationwide. The CDC has said no oral antimicrobial agents are approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treating these extensively resistant strains. In England, the UK Health Security Agency recorded 2,560 diagnoses in its presumptive sexual-transmission group in 2025, up from 2,052 in 2023. The category is based on a surveillance proxy and does not confirm how each person acquired the infection.