%0 Journal Article %T Prevalence of Shiga toxin-producing Shigella species isolated from French travellers returning from the Caribbean: an emerging pathogen with international implications %+ Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) %+ U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) %+ Centre National de Référence - National Reference Center Escherichia coli, Shigella et Salmonella (CNR-ESS) %A Gray, M.D. %A Lacher, D.W. %A Leonard, S.R. %A Abbott, J. %A Zhao, S. %A Lampel, K.A. %A Prothery, E. %A Gouali, M. %A Weill, F.-X. %A Maurelli, A.T. %Z The FNRC-ESS is co-funded by the Institut de Veille Sanitaire. The Unité des Bactéries Pathogènes Entériques belongs to the Integrative Biology of Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory of Excellence funded by the French Government's Investissement d’Avenir program (grant no. ANR-10-LABX-62-IBEID). This work was also supported by grant R01A124656 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The results included herein were previously presented at the 49th US–Japan Conference on Cholera and Other Enteric Bacterial Infections and the 2015 Mid-Atlantic Microbial Pathogenesis Meeting. The opinions or assertions contained herein are the private ones of the authors, and are not to be construed as official or reflecting the views of the Department of Defense or the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. %< avec comité de lecture %@ 1198-743X %J Clinical Microbiology and Infection %I Elsevier for the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases %V 21 %N 8 %P 765.e9-765.e14 %8 2015-08 %D 2015 %R 10.1016/j.cmi.2015.05.006 %M 25980352 %K Dominican Republic %K Haiti %K Shiga toxin %K Shigella %Z Life Sciences [q-bio]/Santé publique et épidémiologieJournal articles %X Shiga toxins (Stxs) are potent cytotoxins that inhibit host cell protein synthesis, leading to cell death. Classically, these toxins are associated with intestinal infections due to Stx-producing Escherichia coli or Shigella dysenteriae serotype 1, and infections with these strains can lead to haemolytic-uraemic syndrome. Over the past decade, there has been increasing recognition that Stx is produced by additional Shigella species. We recently reported the presence and expression of stx genes in Shigella flexneri 2a clinical isolates. The toxin genes were carried by a new stx-encoding bacteriophage, and infection with these strains correlated with recent travel to Haiti or the Dominican Republic. In this study, we further explored the epidemiological link to this region by utilizing the French National Reference Centre for Escherichia coli, Shigella and Salmonella collection to survey the frequency of Stx-producing Shigella species isolated from French travellers returning from the Caribbean. Approximately 21% of the isolates tested were found to encode and produce Stx. These isolates included strains of S. flexneri 2a, S. flexneri Y, and S. dysenteriae 4. All of the travellers who were infected with Stx-producing Shigella had recently travelled to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, or French Guiana. Furthermore, whole genome sequencing showed that the toxin genes were encoded by a prophage that was highly identical to the phage that we identified in our previous study. These findings demonstrate that this new stx-encoding prophage is circulating within that geographical area, has spread to other continents, and is capable of spreading to multiple Shigella serogroups. %G English %L pasteur-02044234 %U https://pasteur.hal.science/pasteur-02044234 %~ PASTEUR %~ SANTE_PUB_INSERM