ABSTRACT
Cross sectional descriptive hospital-based study using convenience sampling method was carried out among 53 dysentery cases admitted to Infectious Diseases Hospital from March to September 1996. It consisted of 67.9 per cent males and 32.1 per cent females. Their ages ranged from one year three months to 80 years. The duration of illness before attending the hospital was one to seven days. They passed motions 16 to 20 times per day. Volume of stool output was small in 62.3 per cent, moderate in 28.3 per cent, with mucus in 62.3 per cent and with blood and mucus in 35.9 per cent. Shigellae was isolated from 45.3 per cent of the cases: Shigella flexneri 2a (54.2 per cent), Shigella dysenteriae A type I (29.2 per cent), Shigella boydii (12.5 per cent) and Shigella sonnei (4.2 per cent). The antibiotic susceptibility pattern revealed that 87.5 per cent of shigellae were resistant to ampicillin, 83.3 per cent to chloramphenicol, 33.3 per cent to cephalothin, 37.5 per cent to furazolidone, 33.3 per cent to nalidixic acid, 83.3 per cent to streptomycin, 91.7 per cent to tetracycline and 33.3 per cent to norfloxacin respectively. It was also noted that 91.7 per cent of shigellae were sensitive to amikacin, 91.7 per cent to augmentin, 83.3 per cent to gentamicin, 58.3 per cent to minocycline, 91.7 per cent to neti1imicin, 66.7 per cent to neomycin, 75 per cent to sisomycin and 62.5 per cent to norfloxacin.