ISOLATION, IDENTIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE

ABSTRACT

Escherichia coli (E. coli) are common pathogen associated several infections in human. The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a major threat in human medicine as it complicates therapeutics in infection control. Antimicrobial resistance is a prevalent global health problem across human and veterinary medicine. This study aim at determining the antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of the Escherichia coli isolates of clinical origin. This involved 30 E. coli isolates from clinical samples. These isolates were from urine (10), stool (5), blood (5), ear swabs (5) and wound swabs (5). The isolates were recovered using cultural and biochemical techniques. The isolates were tested for the pattern of antimicrobial susceptibilities using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. The E. coli isolates demonstrated high resistance to piperacillin(88.3%) and ceftazidime (66.7%). They were significantly sensitive to ciprofloxacin (93.3%) and gentamicin (90.0%). E. coli isolates from samples of both in-patients and out-patients were significantly resistant against penicillin, ceftazidime and chloramphenicol. The resistance pattern towards all the antibiotics except gentamicin revealed that the isolates from out-patients demonstrated higher resistance when compared to the inpatients isolates. It is advised that regular monitoring of the etiological agents and their antibiotic resistance profile should be evaluated for better patient management.