talk me down from being furious!

He should be isolating with his family until his test results. His partner and child should of also been tested. it’s actually fairly serious. He didn't get it from someone bleeding at work, I can tell you that right now. They're protocols for patients with this infection, including isolation. The department of infectious diseases would of been in touch with him telling him to isolate. You need to find out if his partner knows.

Obsessive googling is not treatment, it makes it worse.

TBH--the way he is "talking", he sounds a bit full of it. Since he doesn't seem to "know" what he has, I would text him and tell him you are concerned, so you will be contacting the place where he works an ask them if there is something going around. If he protests, tell him that he is a HCA and SHOULD know exactly what is going on and since he won't share, and you have immunocompromised people in your life, you need to know.

Ah thanks for that. I struggled to make sense of the posts tbh

@furiousnana i understand, and light-hearted, your not you when your hangary

It doesn’t matter in itself, but there is the small matter of the wife and kid…

Op I have health anxiety people just don’t get it. I’d probably go f ing mental and everyone would treat me like I’m an arsehole. YANBU

Why does it matter if he is

Shigella isn’t normally passed on via blood and it rarely infects the blood, if it does it’s really dangerous so he’d not be going on jollies with his dad.

It’s mainly passed on in faeces so either poor hand hygiene or close contact with the anus (e.g rimming like a PP mentioned). If 7 members of staff from a single ward have all caught it through their work and been signed off, I’d expect the hospital would be doing an internal investigation because that’s really poor infection prevention control!!

He’s either lying/confused about what infection he’s got or he’s yanking your chain.

Absolutely but it’s very misleading to say that your needs are too complex for the NHS because there are lots of services (that you have to jump through hoops for) for complex needs.

It sounds more like he’s had care of someone with a contagious disease and is on antibiotics as a precaution. All HCPs wear gloves touching patients and seem to be pretty obsessive about using hand gel and handwashing.
He wouldn’t be able to go anywhere more than a few yards from a toilet if he had active dysentery. Is he a bit of a drama llama?

I agree. Unfortunately it’s really difficult to access anything other than CBT short courses on the NHS, at least in my experience. Im aware of one specialist service for OCD and PTSD (so assume there are others) but they are quite strict about who can access them and there can be a process to get funding if you’re out of the immediate area.

You may have been told that your needs were too complex for Talking Therapies / IAPT but you certainly won’t have been told they’re too complex for the NHS as a whole.

There are lots of services in the NHS and if your needs genuinely are complex you need referring to a different service not to go private to talk to a private therapist.

Have you actually clarified if he has been ill or is he just off work and taking antibiotics as a precaution?

He seems to have a fairly poor grasp of infection control and transmission for a HCA if he thinks you have to touch his poo and not wash your hands properly to be infected by Shigella, and doesn’t wear gloves or wash his hands properly after being exposed to blood. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has just misunderstood.

@furiousnana as you have brought up two DDs with serious heart conditions I honestly disagree with the posts that you have a problem/are germ phobic. If dealing with their health risks is your norm your response is completely understandable. Don’t be made to feel bad. Sorry others in the family are not more considerate.

If he’s off work sick with it as it’s so infectious should he have really been going out for the day with his Dad!!!

Either he’s exaggerating or there’s more to it than he’s letting on

Correct, it doesn’t have to be related to homosexuality but there have been a significant number of outbreaks amongst men who have sex with men (gay, bi and heterosexual men who have sex with other men), enough for the UKHSA to issue a warning. It would be a pertinent question to ask if taking a medical history from someone with the symptoms of Shigellosis.

You're not overreacting, it's highly infectious apparently 😳 I would be staying away from them for several weeks, including the baby. I'd also disinfect the inside of your car and door handles!

This was issued in 2023 -

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/warning-after-rise-in-extremely-drug-resistant-shigella

I don't think this is.your anxiety issue. Someone is off work sick with an infectious disease. I wouldn't want to be round them.

You can actually get shigella from swimming in infected water in the UK, but l think you’re thinking of amoebic dysentery which is water borne and prevalent in tropical/sub tropical areas with poor sanitation.

No, it’s distortion of the facts. You can catch it from oral or anal sex with an infected person. Doesn’t have to be homosexuality related in any way.