Incidence of Convulsions and Encephalopathy in Childhood Shigella Infections

Of 117 children ill enough to be hospitalized with Shigella gastroenteritis, 53 per cent had neurologic symptoms, the majority during the onset of high fever: 11 per cent had convulsions alone, 22 per cent had encephalopathy alone, and 20 per cent had convulsions and encephalopathy. The neurologic manifestations preceded the gastrointestinal symptoms in one fourth of the patients. Shigella sonnei was the predominant organism found in this study, especially in patients with neurologic symptoms.