DaytonDailyNews.com

XENIA — The Greene County Combined Health District is tracking an outbreak of the intestinal illness Shigella that has hit several city daycare centers.

The county had 36 cases of the bacterial infection so far this year. Twenty of those have been reported since Nov. 1 in a handful of Xenia day care centers, said Amy Schmitt, communicable disease nurse for the health district.

Health officials are working with day care operators to combat the spread of the infections. "It's never our mission to close anyone down," Schmitt said. "We work with day cares to decrease transmission and prevent further infection.

Shigella is spread by fecal/oral transmission and causes nausea, diarrhea and high fevers. It is rarely fatal, but can cause dangerous fevers and severe dehydration if left untreated.

Frequent hand washing is the best way to prevent the disease and parents who suspect their children are infected should keep the child home, Schmitt said.

Once a Shigella infection takes root it can spread easily and many cases go unreported. "It takes as few as 10 to 100 organisms to infect someone," Schmitt said. "These cases we have are probably just the tip of the iceberg."

Greene County's three dozen cases also seem minuscule compared with Montgomery County where 325 cases were reported this year, Schmitt said.

Greene saw eight cases of Shigella in 2007 and only two the year before. Warren County has had four cases reported this year, none of them in the past two months.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2342 or cmagan@DaytonDailyNews.com.