MULTIDRUG RESISTANCE PROFILES OF CLINICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISOLATES OF PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA AND ESCHERICHIA COLI
ABSTRACT
The emergence of multiple antibiotic resistance in bacteria and the indiscriminate use of antibiotics contribute to the dissemination of resistant pathogens in the environment which may cause problems in therapy and is a serious public health issue. This study was conducted to determine the incidence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and E.coli isolates in certain clinical and environmental samples as well as to determine the susceptibility patterns of these isolates to some commonly used antibiotics. The organisms were isolated using standard microbiological techniques and the antibiotic susceptibility was determined using disc diffusion method while plasmid curing was done using sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS). The result of this studies showed that most of the clinical and environmental isolates were more resistant to amoxacillin and augumentin but clinical isolates showed higher resistance. It was also observed that clinical isolates showed least resistance to gentamycin, ofloxacin, and ciprofloxacin; similar least resistance were observed in environmental samples with gentamycin and ciprofloxacin. There was a significant difference (P≥ 0.05) in the percentage resistance between the clinical and environmental isolates. Thirteen isolates that were resistant to more than seven antibiotics were subjected to plasmid curing using 1% and 5% SDS. It was observed that at treatment with 1% SDS some of the isolates became resistant to more than one antibiotic; when SDS was increased to 5%, some of the isolates that werre resistant become completely sensitive to all the antibiotics used. However, one of the P.aeruginosa that was initially sensitive to chloramphenicol became completely resistant at 5% SDS and another isolate of P.aeruginosa that was initially sensitive to septrin, sparfloxacin and ciprofloxacin became completely resistant at 1% and 5% SDS. This study indicates that P.aeruginosa and E.coli isolated from clinical samples were more resistant to antibiotics than those isolated from environmental samples. It has as well shown that there may be a possible transfer of resistance from one strain to another.