A foodborne bacteria that is resistant to drugs has made its way to the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report" released Friday. This strain of shigella causes an intestinal infection that leads to diarrhea.

Shigella causes shigellosis which infects about 500,000 in the U.S. every year. The disease comes with symptoms such as acute muscle cramping, nausea and vomiting, USA Today reports.

Usually, shigella settles in someone with good health and within one week, symptoms surface. Normally, the antimicrobial drug ciprofloxacin is recommended to control the symptoms and shorten the duration of the illness.

This strain of shigella has been shown to be resistant to drugs such as ciprofloxacin. The strain has infected at least 243 people in the U.S. over the past year. About 20 percent of patients had to be hospitalized.

Ninety percent of this strain of shigella tested by the CDC is resistant to ciprofloxacin. Shigella has also been resistant to ampicillin and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole antibiotics, Yahoo! Health reports.

About half of the cases of shigella can be linked to international travel to the Dominican Republic, India, Haiti and Morocco, as well as other places.

Shigella has been recently circulating in local populations. There was a recent outbreak of shigella among San Francisco's homeless population, with 95 cases of the drug-resistant strain found there alone. Other cases of shigella were found in Massachusetts, California and Pennsylvania.

Shigella is a highly contagious disease. Only about ten organisms can cause infection, and only humans and higher primates can carry the disease. Shigella infects about 165 million people worldwide and causes 600,000 deaths per year, CDC's Anna Bowen reports.

Bowen says that it is critical to prevent shigella from spreading. She says hand-washing with soap and water is important to everyone. She adds that when traveling internationally, people should choose hot foods and only drink from sealed containers.

If someone is infected with shigella, they should first turn to over the counter drugs like Pepto-Bismol or Imodium. In severe cases, they can seek to get a prescription for an antimicrobial medication.