The Dupage County Health Department confirmed that at least 140 people have been culture confirmed with Shigella sonnei infections contracted at a Chicago-area Subway restaurant in March of 2010. Ten were hospitalized. Health authorities closed the restaurant at 1009 E. Roosevelt in Lombard and launched an investigation into the source of the outbreak.
Shigella is a bacterium that can cause sudden and severe diarrhea (gastroenteritis) in humans. Shigellosis is the name of the disease that Shigella causes. The illness is also known as “bacillary dysentery.” A person can contract shigellosis by ingesting only a few organisms, which makes shigellosis the most communicable of the bacterial-induced diarrheas.