Multi-antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria represent a global medical challenge,
having reduced or threatened to completely eliminate the list of reserved, last-resort
agents usually deployed in serious and/or life-threatening infections. Even newer
and very potent antibiotics are not spared from the emergence of resistant strains
of organisms. In this study, the antibiotic resistance profile and the plasmid profile
of some multi-antibiotic resistant bacteria strains isolated from the urine samples
of fifty volunteers (ages 15-30) from a community in south eastern Nigeria were analyzed.
Eight multidrug-resistant bacteria were isolated from the 50 urine samples, of which
approximately 60% showed resistance to nitrofurantion, amoxicillin, ciprofloxacin,
ampicillin, gentamicin, ampiclox and erythromycin. The MIC of the isolated S. aureus,
E. coli, and Klebsiella species to ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, pefloxacin, and co-trimoxazole
were greater than 500 μg/ml. Plasmid profile studies revealed the presence of R-plasmids
of size range 11-18 kb. The cultures of resistant isolates irreversibly lost their
antibiotic resistance with acridine orange and SDS treatment, which suggests that
the resistant genes could be harboured in the plasmids.
Key-words:
Antibiogram - antibiotic-resistance - plasmid profile - urinopathogens
