It has oft been said that art imitates life. Of course, this can be interchangeable in the sense that life can also imitate art. Such is the case with the classic edutainment game, The Oregon Trail. It has reigned long over many an old school computer as the go to place to have fun while learning. Those who played will remember trying to manage resources only to lose them while fording a river or trying to keep everyone alive until a family member died of dysentery. Yes, dysentery. Not one of those diseases you often think of but there’s been a recent outbreak and guess what state it happened in!
If you answered the above statement with, “Oregon,” you’d be correct. Since the start of the year, 40 new cases of dysentery have been reported and that’s not something that doctors really want to see happening. Over the last decade, cases of dysentery, caused by the Shigella bacteria, have been happening more and more frequently. A majority of cases have been happening in Multnomah County with over a dozen subclusters of the strain.
“What even is dysentery?” You ask. Well, it’s an intestinal ailment caused by the aforementioned Shigella bacteria. It often results in intense bouts of bloody diarrhea with dehydration being a potential concern depending on the severity of the illness. With proper hydration, dysentery can come and go with little to no issue but that wasn’t always the case in the olden days, or when playing The Oregon Trail.
The current outbreak seems to be stemming from continual transmission between people themselves as opposed to a specific source. That is to say, it doesn’t appear that a bunch of people ate at the same restaurant and the food was tainted, or something of that sort. Residents of Multnomah County are advised to avoid people with symptoms, wash your hands regularly, and avoid having sex with anyone experiencing diarrhea. Nothing ruins the romance like dysentery, right?
Joking aside, we wish the very best to everyone having to deal with this crap and hope for a speedy recovery.
