Enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC)-PCR analysis as a reliable evidence for suspected Shigella spp. outbreaks

BACKGROUND: Shigellosis remains a serious public health problem and an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The aim of this study was to characterize fliC and the genetic relatedness of Shigella spp. isolated during a one-year period from children in a suspected outbreak in Tehran, Iran. METHODS AND RESULTS: Fifty Shigella spp. were isolated from 3779 stool samples of children with diarrhea (prevalence rate: 1.32%). Among the isolates, 92% were characterized as Shigella sonnei, while 6% and 2% were identified as S. flexneri and S. boydii, respectively. S. dysenteriae was not recovered from the patients. All isolates were negative for fliC except for Shigella standard strains. The enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus-polymerase chain reaction (ERIC-PCR) profiles allowed differentiating the 50 isolates into 5 ERIC types, which were grouped into five clusters (ET1–ET5). Computer-assisted clustering of the strains showed a high degree of similarity among the isolates. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, given the clonal correlation of the Shigella strains isolated in this study and the lack of fliC among them, we propose that probably a single or limited fliC-defected Shigella clone spread and caused the outbreak.