Outbreak of Shigella sonnei in a rural hotel in La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain.

Shigella sonnei is a significant cause of gastroenteritis in both developing and industrialized countries. Knowledge of the diversity and antimicrobial susceptibility of the bacterium may be helpful in the management of both individual cases and outbreaks. This study was undertaken to evaluate the molecular epidemiology of an outbreak of diarrhea due to S. sonnei. The outbreak involved 14 of 28 (50%) tourists in a small rural hotel in La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain. All of the S. sonnei isolates recovered had the same antimicrobial susceptibility and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns, suggesting that the outbreak was produced by a single strain.