ORIGINAL ARTICLE Species Distribution' and Antibiotic Resistance of Shigella Isolates in an Urban Community in Malaysia WS Lee, MRCP, S D Puthucheary, FRCPath Departments of Paediatrics and Medical Microbiology, University of Malaya Medical Centre, 50603, Kuala Lumpur Introduction Shigellosis is a major problem in developing countries with high morbidity and mortality, 'and presents a pressing challenge for providing effective antibiotic therapy because of its invasive nature, But Shigella species are also more prone to acquire antibiotics resistance 2 , Up to 51% of Shigella isolates obtained from children with acute gastroenteritis in Kenya were resistant to at least one antibiotic 3 , Common antibiotics used to treat bacterial enteric infection, such as trimethoprim- sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX), ampicillin, tetracycline, and nalidixic acid are no longer effective in shigellosis 4 , Many countries in the Southeast Asian region have reported the emergence of multi-resistant strains of Shigelld'-6, Shigella flexneri is the commonest species in developing countries while S. sonnei is the commonest in developed countries ' , In Malaysia, S. flexneri was the most predominant Shigella species isolated in the 1970's and 1980's7,8, The This article was accepted: 10 November 2002 Corresponding Author: W5 Lee, Departments of Paediatrics, University of Malaya Medical Centre, 50603, Kuala Lumpur 262 Med J Malaysia Vol 58 No 2 June 2003