33.2  Shigellosis (or bacillary dysentery)

The word dysentery refers to diarrhoea containing blood and mucus. There are two main types of dysentery, caused by different infectious agents. The one that we are going to describe here is bacillary dysentery, or shigellosis. The other type is amoebic dysentery, which is discussed in Study Session 34. However, in this section we will mention some of the main differences between the two types of dysentery, to help you diagnose them correctly.