[Effectiveness of repeated antibiotic or chemotherapeutic treatments on Shigella carrier states].

A group of 39 former dysentery patients, who continued to excrete Shigella bacteria after a first cure of antibiotics when full clinical recovery was obtained, were treated differentially under bacteriological control. The carrier state was still extent in 7% of the cases after three antibiotic or chemotherapeutical cures. No direct relation was found between the sensitivity of Shigella to chemotherapeutics and the level of the carrier state. Although treated already in the acute stage with adequate antibiotics, resistance to a second therapeutical attempt was recorded in a proportion of 33%. It is considered useless to repeat the antibiotic or chemotherapeutical cures in the treatment of convalescent carriers because of the low efficiency and the biological and economical disadvantages.