Lethal Toxic Encephalopathy Due to Childhood Shigellosis in a Developed Country

Shigellosis results in considerable morbidity in endemic areas, but mortality is rare in developed countries. All pediatric deaths (n = 15) in Israel following shigellosis in the past 10 years were reviewed. The patients' ages ranged from 5 months to 11 years; there were eight boys and seven girls. Three were institutionalized mentally retarded patients, 11 were healthy children. Twelve had definite clinical signs of brain death within 48 hours of onset of disease. Cause of death in all patients was consistent with toxic encephalopathy. No other systemic complication was implicated as the cause of death except for one case consistent with a "Reye-like" syndrome. Shigella species were as follows: 8 flexneri, 4 sonnei, 1 dysenteriae, and 2 were not identified. Case-control study of these patients vs surviving, hospitalized patients with shigellosis showed similar severity of fever, diarrhea, vomiting, and dehydration and similar incidence of convulsions. Headache was a prominent feature of patients who died; 5 of 7 verbal patients complained of this symptom as opposed to 2 of 20 in the control group (P less than .01). There were no significant differences in the hematological and biochemical profile (except for an increased incidence of hyponatremia in the study group), pattern of shigella species, or antibiotic sensitivity. These findings indicate that mortality from shigellosis in a developed country is due primarily to the toxic encephalopathy syndrome.