Antibiotics in acute bacillary dysentery; observations in 1,408 cases with positive cultures.

Bacillary dysentery historically is a disease of major importance to confined population groups. Epidemics occur repeatedly aboard ship, in institutions for the mentally defective and mentally ill, and in orphanages, jails, and prison camps. Experience with dysentery in the United Nations prisoner-of-war camp in Korea followed this historical pattern, despite the preventive measures instituted by the authorities. An important contributing factor to this lack of effectiveness was the high endemic level of infection at the time of capture. Bacteriological examination of 1,000 prisoners at the time they were brought to the camp showed 8% to be infected with pathogenic Shigella. During the past decade sulfonamide therapy has been established as highly effective in shigellosis. 1 The treatment of the sick persons in Korea was complicated by the fact that almost all the cases of bacillary dysentery were due to sulfonamide-resistant shigellae. This finding, based first on clinical observations, was supported later