The Prevalence of Shiga toxin-1 in Shigella spp. Isolates Collected from Diarrhea Patients, Ahvaz, Iran

Objective: Shigellosis as one of the substantial causative agents of microbial dysentery still has a remarkable prevalence in areas with poor hygienic infrastructures. The probable existence of the deadly Shiga toxin-1(Stx1) in some Shigella strains would manifest life-threatening clinical symptoms of the infection. The aim of this study was to determine the presence of Stx1 in isolated from patients with diarrhea. Results: Totally, 227 Shigella species including 60 S. flexner i, 157 S. sonnei, and 10 S. boydii were collected from diarrheal patients in tropical infectious diseases research center of Ahvaz, Iran, from 2013 to 2015. The isolates were collected mostly from the intensive care unit, infectious disease, and surgery department. The isolates were identified and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed to detect the stx gene. The results indicated that none of them encode the stx gene. In conclusion, isolates of this study were not capable of stx1 encoding.