A prospective epidemiologic study of shigellosis in the Israel Defense Forces: implications for the use of shigella vaccines.

Recent development of new shigella vaccines has renewed interest in the current epidemiology of shigellosis in endemic regions. A prospective epidemiologic study of 5,774 soldiers was carried out in the Israel Defense Forces, between the months of May and September 1984. Shigellosis was found to be responsible for half the diarrhea epidemics and only rarely presented as sporadic cases of diarrhea. The epidemics occurred after exposure to field conditions, whereas under fixed military base conditions the finding of a case of shigellosis generally was not associated with an epidemic spread of the disease. It was concluded that, in this population, effective shigella vaccines may provide an important means of preventing epidemics of shigellosis in military units operating outside of permanent bases.