Abstract

According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the six ESKAPE bacteria are responsible for two thirds of all health care-associated infections (HAIs) including Escherichia coli. Klebsiella species and their gram-negative cousin E. coli together accounted for 18 percent of all HAIs in 2006 to 2007, and a growing proportion of these two bad bugs carry resistance to a remarkable spectrum of antibiotics. Of the very few drugs in late-stage development, none works by a novel mechanism. The aim of our study is to correlate the plasmids with drug resistance of clinical isolates of E. coli. Twenty two clinical isolates of E. coli were collected from different diagnostic centers of Dhaka and their antimicrobial susceptibility pattern was tested. Seven multidrug resistant isolates of E. coli were selected and their antibiotic susceptibility pattern was tested before and after curing. Our study revealed that 100% of the isolates (22 isolates) were resistant to cephalexin, cephradine, oxacillin, penicillin and vancomycin. 95.45% of the isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin, cloxacillin and imipenem. 90.91% isolates (21 isolates) were resistant to erythromycin. 81% of the isolates (18 isolates) were resistant to amoxicillin. 72.72% (16 isolates) were resistant to co-trimoxazole, 63.64% (14 isolates) were resistant to tetracycline. 31.81% (7 isolates) were resistant to ceftriaxone and neomycin. 22.73% (5 isolates) were resistant to gentamicin and only 13.64% of the isolates (3 isolates) were resistant to chloramphenicol. There was no significant difference in the antibiotic susceptibility pattern before and after curing indicating no correlation between plasmid and drug resistance in the 7 isolates of E. coli. However, isolate number 5 which was resistant to gentamicin, neomycin and imipenem became sensitive after curing. Similarly sample number 1 became sensitive to rifampicin and imipenem and sample number 7 became sensitive to imipenem after curing.

Key words: Multi-drug resistant, Escherichia coli, antimicrobial susceptibility, plasmid, curing.