Prevalence and Multi-Drug Resistance Pattern of Food Poisoning Enteric Bacteria Associated with Diarrhoea Patients

Diarrhoea continues to be a burden especially in developing countries of Africa. However, the treatment of diarrhoea is complicated due to the increase in resistance of enteric and food poisoning bacteria to commonly utilized antibiotics. This work was focused on the identification of enteric bacteria pathogens implicated in cases of diarrhoea orchestrated by food poisoning by use of specialized identification media and biochemical assays. Eight different bacteria species including; E. coli, S. typhi, Non-typhoid Salmonella, Proteus sp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Citrobacter sp., Klebsiella sp. and Non-Sorbitol utilizing E. coli were isolated from diarrhoea patients in Yenagoa, Nigeria with different frequencies. Of all isolates, E. coli had the highest frequency of occurrence (29.9%), followed by Proteus sp. (20.8%), Non-typhoid Salmonella (19.3%) and S. typhi (10.7%). Other isolates had frequencies less than 10% respectively. The isolated enteric bacteria were subjected to antibiotics susceptibility assay by the Kirby-Bauer method using Ofloxacin (5μg), Ciprofloxacin (5μg), Gentamicin (10μg), Ceftazidine (30μg), Nitrofuratoin (300μg), Augmentin (30μg), Cefixime (5μg) and Cefuroxime (30μg). All the bacteria isolates assayed showed 100% resistance to Ceftazidine and Cefuroxime while all isolates with the exception of one Citrobacter sp. was resistant to augmentin, thus indicating the unsuitability of these drugs in the treatment of diarrhoea. Majority of the bacteria isolates showed multidrug resistance patterns, with E. coli, Proteus sp. and Klebsiella sp. showing a 100% resistance to the same six (Ceftazidine, Cefuroxime, Gentamycin, Cefixime, Nitrofuratoin and Augmentin) out of the eight antibiotics assayed. This is of public health significance and shows a growing trend of multidrug resistance to commercially available antibiotics utilized in the management of diarrhoea which can cause an increase in morbidity and mortality associated with acute diarrhoea