Abstract
Two cases of Shigella septicaemia are described. The first was a 59-year-old diabetic man with chronic renal failure who was admitted for dysentery and shock. Blood culture grew Shigella dysenteriae and Enterobacter agglomerans , thus indicating polymicrobial septicaemia. The second was a 39-year-old male patient admitted for abdominal cramps, diarrhoea, fever and chills. Shigella flexneri was grown from blood culture. The stool examinations in both patients showed many polymorphonuclear leucocytes and red blood corpuscles. Shigellaemia, particularly in adults, is apparently infrequent, with only a very few cases reported. Polymicrobial septicaemia involving Shigella is also not common. These conditions are discussed, with a review of the literature.