Flint’s Water Crisis Is Even Affecting Hand Washing

The city of Flint, Michigan, is seeing a rise in cases of a bacterial illness called shigellosis, and the ongoing water crisis there may be in part to blame, according to news reports. So far this year, there have been 85 cases of shigellosis in Genesee County, which includes Flint, according to The New York Times. That’s the highest number of shigellosis cases among all counties in Michigan this year. A statement from Genesee County Health Department in September said that cases of the bacterial illness are up in both the county and the state. In the entire state of Michigan, there were 454 cases of shigellosis this year, and there were 515 cases in 2015. That compares to 175 cases in 2013 and 249 cases in 2012. Shigellosis is a very contagious gastrointestinal disease caused by the bacteria Shigella. There are about 500,000 cases of the illness each year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Symptoms include diarrhea, fever and abdominal pain, and usually last a week, although it may take several months for people’s bowel habits to return to normal after infection, the CDC said. The Shigella bacteria are spread through contact with fecal matter. People can become infected if they eat food or touch surfaces that have been contaminated with Shigella. Careful handwashing with soap and water can reduce the spread of the disease, the CDC said. [Top 7 Germs in Food that Make You Sick] But residents of Flint may have c...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news