Portland Continues to Embrace its Third World Dysentery Experience
As with last year’s infections, the majority of the cases are among the homeless.
Dysentery is an uncomfortable and messy infection characterized by severe diarrhea that often contains blood and sometimes mucus. It was once known as the “bloody flux” and has been documented since ancient times, including by Hippocrates. The disease can be fatal. Perhaps most famously, it claimed the life of King Henry V of England, who died suddenly from dysentery in 1422 while campaigning in France.
The condition typically results from bacterial or parasitic infections, with the most common causes being the bacteria Shigella (leading to shigellosis) and the amoeba Entamoeba histolytica (leading to amoebiasis).
I covered a significant outbreak of the shigella version of this disease in January 2024, which occurred in Oregon’s largest and most liberal city Portland. Over a year later, the third-world disease (it occurs most often in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia), the city is still battling to end shigella infections.
There is even worse news: The strain circulating is resistant to several antibiotics.
Dysentery is on the rise in the Portland metro area, according to recent data released by the Multnomah County Health Department.
Also known as shigellosis, dysentery is a highly contagious bacterial disease that can cause fever, cramps, vomiting and diarrhea. It is spread very easily from person to person when someone gets fecal matter from an infected person into their mouth, health officials say.
According to the health department, two types of Shigella typically circulate in Oregon. Although both strains can cause severe diarrhea, officials are not seeing the strain which can cause more severe or fatal illness. However, they note the strains circulating in Multnomah County are resistant to several antibiotics.
🌎 Third world filth alert! Dysentery cases rise in Portland. Dysentery is spread thru the Fecal Oral route.
Also known as shigella, dysentery is a highly contagious bacterial disease that can cause fever, cramps, vomiting and diarrhea. It is spread very easily from person to… pic.twitter.com/849RQi3Flb
— Bad Kitty Unleashed 🦁💪🏻 (@pepesgrandma) February 28, 2025
As with last year’s cases, 2025 infections are predominately among the homeless.
…[T]he most recent cluster of cases, the county said 56% were among people experiencing homelessness and 55% of the cases reported methamphetamine or opiate usage. They have also also identified a spread among housed and unhoused social groups who use drugs.
In the majority of these cases, the health department says shigella is spreading between people rather than from one single source. As a result, they are providing short-term housing to those who test positive, noting that greater access to hygiene and sanitation can contribute to reducing the spread of shigella and other diseases.
However, the number of infections may be even higher. Public health “experts” want to control the spread, which primarily occurs through feces, with more public toilets.
Health care providers who spoke to The Oregonian/OregonLive said they suspect the actual number of infections is higher because many people who get sick don’t see a doctor. And they agreed that the county’s growing unsheltered homelessness crisis has contributed to the rise in infections.
“Any situation where (you are) unable to wash your hands regularly will put you at risk for shigella and I think unsheltered homelessness certainly contributes to people just really not having places to do that,” said Dr. Amanda Risser, a senior medical director for Central City Concern, a Portland-based health care and housing services provider.
Risser and Dr. John Townes, medical director for infection prevention and control at Oregon Health & Science University, said increased access to bathrooms and handwashing stations would be one clear fix.
“If you want to stop an outbreak of shigella, you give people toilets and soap and water,” Townes said. “And you train them in how to wash their hands.”
This solution assumes that those who are homeless, and either mentally unsound and/or are doing drugs, are going to follow conventional hygiene practices.
Unfortunately, that is unlikely to be the case. Consequently, antibiotic-resistant strains are likely to become more prevalent as this outbreak continues.
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“NPR’s John Nielsen reports on how the work of Brian Atwater, a tsunami expert with the U.S. Geological Survey, helped to uncover the origins of a massive earthquake and tsunami that devastated much of the U.S. Pacific Northwest in the early 1700s.”
https://www.npr.org/2005/01/02/4254895/massive-tsunami-hit-pacific-northwest-in-18th-century
I don’t know why I thought of this…
“It is spread very easily from person to person when someone gets fecal matter from an infected person into their mouth”
That happens to everybody I know all the time.
Ali Wong, call your agent.
This is a choice by the local government to allow these conditions and will continue until local voters make different choices.
One gets what one voted for. I say Portland should embrace their newfound notoriety.
Although I am obsessive-compulsive about hand-washing, this article just sent me to the bottle of hand-sanitizer I keep by my desk.
Look on the bright side, one no longer needs to travel all the way to Mexico to get the “green apple two step”.
When we bring there here, here becomes there.
FWIW, Dysentery, mostly caused by Shigella killed 90 to 100 thousand soldiers during the US Civil War. I remember years ago, a guided tour of Gettysburg, having the shit lines pointed out. Most of the soldiers had diarrheal illness and would step back several paces back out of line and drop their pants..
Leave Democrats in charge long enough and may literally wipe themselves out.
Maybe not the protected politicians, but surely their voters.
“Dehydrate all you want — we’ll import more!”