According to health officals, a drug-resistant strain of a nasty stomach infection that caused over 200 illnesses since last May is spreading in the United States.

The experts said various cases were traced to people who had lately traveled to the Dominican Republic, India or other countries. Outbreaks of the shigella bacteria are not strange and this strain is resistant to the antibiotic most normally prescribed for adults.

“This is the first time we've documented this large an outbreak of antibiotic-resistant (shigella) linked to international travel”, said Dr. Anna Bowen of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than 200 people got sick since last May with large latest outbreaks in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and California. The experts said that shigella is a common cause of diarrhea. This bacteria can spread very easily through contaminated food or pools and ponds.

For majority of people, it is an unpleasant and temporary illness. This illness ends within a week and can be helped with over-the-counter medicines such as Pepto-Bismol or Imodium. As per the experts, sometimes antibiotics are used such as azithromycin for children and ciprofloxacin, sold as Cipro, for adults.

Anna Bowen, MD, MPH, a medical officer in CDC’s Waterborne Diseases Prevention Branch, said the rise in drug-resistant Shigella makes it more critical to prevent shigellosis from spreading.

The past few years, health officers are putting efforts to detect shigella bugs resistant to azithromycin. People in 32 states and Puerto Rico became ill because of the Cipro-resistant superbug. According to researchers, the first choice to treat shigellosis among US adults is Ciprofloxacin.