PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Up until October 2023, Philadelphia saw an average of 10 shigella cases a month, but since then, the health department has reported 80 cases of the intestinal infection — particularly among the city's homeless population.
Kara Cohen, assistant medical director of street medicine for Project HOME, said shigella spreads quickly through homeless encampments.
"Among people experiencing homelessness, a lot of people already have underlying health conditions so it doesn't take much to knock people off-kilter," she said.
Dr. Perry Halkitis, dean of Rutgers’ School of Public Health, called the spike of shigella in Philly an “outbreak.”
"It is significant and it is likely to spread to other populations really quickly,” he said.
Shigella symptoms include diarrhea, fever, and stomach pain. They usually surface within two days of contracting the infection. In rare cases, it can also cause death.
The health department said shigella spreads through close contact. Regular hand-washing can help reduce spread.
The problem, according to Cohen, is that running water for hand-washing is often scarce within the homeless encampments where the infection is spreading.
“Sometimes there's not any access to running water,” she said, “and there's not a lot of access to public restrooms."
Currently, the health department said it is working with the Parker administration to come up with a long-term plan. In the meantime, it’s also distributing sanitation kits and urging health care providers to report any shigella infections.