I had always considered myself a relatively healthy individual, but in December 2023, I experienced an illness that turned my life upside down. It started innocently enough with a night out with friends. We went to a crowded venue, danced, drank, and had a great time. I even met someone I really liked and we ended up being intimate. A few days later, I started to feel unwell. I had stomach cramps and no appetite, but I brushed it off as a hangover. However, on Thursday, I noticed blood in the toilet bowl after using the bathroom. By that evening, I was feeling sick, constantly needing to go to the toilet, and having severe bloody diarrhoea every two hours. It was terrifying. I called 111 on Friday morning and they told me to try eating dry bread, which seemed to make matters worse. Over the next few days, I had diarrhoea up to 12 times each day. The only thing I could keep down was water. Even soups would send my symptoms spiraling. I was losing weight and becoming increasingly isolated. I finally went to my GP, who did a urine and stool sample. After I described my symptoms, they said it might be shigellosis, a gastrointestinal infection caused by a bacteria known as shigella. I had never even heard of it before. By the time I got my test results back confirming that was what it was, the GP said there wasn’t really a point in prescribing antibiotics, as I’d already been through the worst of it. They also told me that they would be alerting the Health Protection Team, who provide support and advice on infectious diseases and infection control. On their advice, I spoke to everyone that I was with that weekend, but no one else had any symptoms. Shigella is found in the faeces of infected people, in contaminated food or water, or on surfaces. It can also be passed on during sex. The Health Protection Team said it might have been the latter, but it also could’ve been contaminated water in any of the places I went to. I’ll never know for sure how I got this, but I think it’s really important that gay men are aware of shigella. At the end of last year, the Government issued statements about ‘extremely drug-resistant shigella’, saying they wanted to specifically warn gay and bisexual men. We all have to be aware of our sexual health and not just rely on taking PrEP to remain sexually healthy. Lots of gay men think PrEP is all they need to worry about, but it doesn’t protect you from most STDs. So please everyone, look after yourselves. And you won’t have to go through what I did.
Shigellosis: The Horrendous Gastrointestinal Disease I Never Knew Existed
