Shigellosis is an acute enteric infection and still one of the leading causes of diarrhoeal deaths:

​

• caused by consumption of food and water contaminated with bacteria from the genus Shigella

• has symptoms like fever and headache, malaise, anorexia and vomiting

• causing 165 million cases of diarrhea each year resulting in 212 438 deaths globally in all ages (1)

• is the second most common cause of diarrhoeal deaths in children under 5 years of age after rotavirus

• there is a lack of accurate data on the actual burden of disease in the regions most affected

• there are four species in the genus Shigella: S. dysenteriae, S. flexneri, S. boydii and S. sonnei (2)

• that the predominant serogroup of Shigella circulating in a community is different between developing and developed countries: in developing countries S. flexneri is the main serogroup (~60%) and with S. sonnei being the next most common (~15-25%) (3) and in developed countries S. sonnei is the most common serogroup (~77%), followed by S. flexneri (~16%) (4)