Shigellosis causes dysentery and kills an estimated 1.1 million people per year worldwide, 60% of them children under the age of 5. The infectious agent is Shigella spp, transmitted from person to person by fecal-oral route or via ingestion of contaminated food or water. Having a system for early detection of outbreaks would be very useful for implementing control measures that help reduce the number of affected patients, economic losses and prevent the dissemination of antimicrobial resistance. We present the application of a space-time permutation scan statistic implemented within the free SaTScan software for laboratory based surveillance of Shigella cases in six provinces from Argentina. SaTScan was applied on the data loaded into WHONET databases (an electronic laboratory data system used world-wide) in the six provinces from April 2009 to March 2012. The project allowed the identification of 32 events, including several of particular public health importance for their duration or number of affected patients. It also strengthened the relationship between the laboratory and epidemiology staff. In conclusion, the combination of WHONET laboratory data and SaTScan analysis can detect important community outbreaks of antimicrobial-resistant shigellosis in a timely manner, to make a difference to public health.