History and Epidemiology of Bacillary Dysentery in Korea: from Korean War to 2017

Abstract

Dysentery has been a major illness for a long time in our country. During Korean war, bacillary dysentery was common illness as well as other infectious diseases such as typhus fever, and Shigella flexneri occupied more than 90% of the cases reported by UN forces. After the war, the Korean National Institute of Health began to monitor the disease as a legal communicable disease. The incidence of dysentery decreased gradually from 1960 through 1980s and consistently low until 1997, and common serotype has changed from S. flexneri to S. sonnei. However, a nationwide epidemic of dysentery occurred at 1998, peaking at 2,462 cases in 2000, and continued until 2004. Most cases were S. sonnei, but the proportion of S. flexneri existed changing with time. There were several major epidemic cases during the period, and the dysentery outbreaks in 1998 and 1999 were associated with nationwide school meal provision which began in 1998. According to the region, Juju island particularly showed a high incidence rate in the period. Since 2005, the nationwide dysentery epidemic was over and incidence of dysentery remained stably low. Recently, multi-drug resistant Shigella infection imported from Southeast Asia appeared, and it requires continuous monitoring and control.

Keywords: Bacillary dysentery; Epidemiology; Nationwide outbreak; Shigella sonnei.