SHIGA DYSENTERY

In New Guinea, as in other parts of the world, bacillary dysentery, or shiga dysentery, will always be an important problem. It is particularly important to the armed forces because it renders fighting men noneffective and it increases the burden of the Medical Corps. Because of the necessity for keeping units of the armed forces as close to full effective strength as is feasible, it is desirable to utilize every means of arriving at the diagnosis as early as possible in order to shorten the period of hospitalization and to return such patients to duty. By formal definition bacillary dysentery, or shiga dysentery, is an acute infectious disease of the lower bowel caused by the Shigella group of organisms and manifested by fever, cramps, nausea, vomiting and frequent stools containing mucus, pus and blood. Often the arbitrary statement is made that the stools of bacillary dysentery may be distinguished by