Good personal hygiene should be practised at all times. In addition to the above precautions, suggestions to reduce the risk of transmission include:
Don’t share towels or linen with the infected person.
The infected person shouldn’t prepare any meals at home for other family members.
The infected person should be kept home until the diarrhoea has ceased, to prevent infecting others at work, school, kindergarten or childcare.
If the infected person works in a high-risk occupation, such as a food worker, health care worker and childcare worker; it is important that they remain away from work until they have produced two successive negative stool specimens taken 24 hours apart for Shigella, and not less than 48 hours after completing appropriate antibiotic treatment.
Children should not attend child care centres, kindergartens or school until their symptoms have stopped.
When travelling overseas to countries with poor sanitation conditions, only drink bottled water. Don’t forget to brush your teeth in bottled water too. Avoid food buffets, uncooked foods or peeled fruits and vegetables, and ice in drinks.