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

Abstract Objective Shigellosis is one of the substantial causative agents of microbial dysentery and still has a remarkable prevalence particularly in areas with poor hygienic infrastructures. The probable existence of the deadly Shiga toxin-1(Stx1) protein 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. flexneri, 157 S. sonnei, and 10 S. boydii were collected from diarrheal patients in tropical infectious diseases research center of Ahvaz, Iran, from 2013 till 2015. The isolates were collected mostly from the intensive care unit, infectious disease, and surgery settings. 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.