Does Treatment of Bloody Diarrhea due to Shigella dysenteriae Type 1 with Ampicilin Precipitate Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome?
Download Article Diarrhea-associated hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), the most common cause of acute renal failure in infancy and childhood, is often associated with infection by organisms producing Shiga toxin (ST) or Shiga-like toxin (SLT), mainly verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (VTEC O157:H7) and Shigella dysenteriae type 1 (1,2). Although antibiotics are believed to be essential in treating shigellosis, treatment of S. dysenteriae type 1 patients with antibiotics to which the organism is resistant has been considered a risk factor for HUS (3,4). Until 1993, HUS was rarely reported from Saudi Arabia. Four cases of diarrhea-associated HUS due to S. dysenteriae type 1 were identified in 1989 (J. Hibbs and A. Mishkas, unpublished report), and one case of HUS attributed to plasma transfusion was documented in 1988 (5). In May 1993, four dysentery-associated HUS cases in two families were reported from northwestern Saudi Arabia (Tabuk). S. dysenteriae type 1 was isolated from th
