Diarrhoeal disease is still considered a major cause of morbidity and mortality among children. Among diarrhoeagenic agents,
Shigella
should be highlighted due to its prevalence and the severity of the associated disease. Here, we assessed
Shigella prevalence, drug susceptibility and virulence factors. Faeces from 157 children with diarrhoea who sought treatment at the Children’s Hospital João Paulo II, a reference children´s hospital in Belo Horizonte, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, were cultured and drug susceptibility of the
Shigella isolates was determined by the disk diffusion technique.
Shigella virulence markers were identified by polymerase chain reaction. The bacterium was recovered from 10.8% of the children (88.2%
Shigella sonnei
). The
ipaH,
iuc,
sen and
ial genes were detected in strains isolated from all shigellosis patients;
set1A was only detected in
Shigella flexneri
. Additionally, patients were infected by
Shigella strains of different
ial,
sat,
sen and
set1A genotypes. Compared to previous studies, we observed a marked shift in the distribution of species from
S. flexneri to
S. sonnei and high rates of trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole resistance.