The incidence of antibiotic resistance in aerobic faecal flora in Sooth India

Abstract

During a field study in South India in 1989, faecal specimens were collected from residents in villages and the town of Vellore in South India. Examination of the faecal specimens revealed that virtually the whole population carried commensal bacteria resistant to trimethoprim, ampicillin and chloramphenicol. Most specimens contained more than one type of bacterium resistant to each antibiotic. There was less resistance to nalidixic acid, with a higher proportion in the town (33%) than in the villages (13%). Although there was little cross-resistance of the ampicillin-resistant strains to later generation cephalosporins, 50% were resistant to the combination of amoxycillin and clavulanic acid. There was no significant cross-resistance of the nalidixic acid-resistant strains to fluorinated 4-quinolones, despite the free availability of ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin in the area. The probable reason for the high incidence of resistance to first generation antimicrobials is the extensive use of these agents, coupled with continuous exposure to large numbers of faecal micro-organisms.

The prevalence and genetics of resistance to commonly used antimicrobial agents in faecal Enterobacteriaceae from children in Bangladesh

“…Resistance in gut flora may arise from the wide-spread, indiscriminate use of antimicrobials [19] and from environmental spread of resistant enteric flora [20]. Several reports have indicated a relatively high prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in enteric flora in children in tropical countries [21][22].…”

Trimethoprim resistant dihydrofolate reductases in normal faecal flora isolated in India

“…Trimethoprim resistant Gram-negative rods were encountered at very high rates in the normal faecal flora in urban and rural populations in Tamil Nadu, south India [13]. Thirty-six percent of this resistance was due to transferable plasmid-mediated resistance to the drug.…”

“…[10][11][12]. High levels of resistance have also been reported in the normal faecal flora from populations in Africa and Asia [13][14][15][16] and in the Netherlands [17,18].…”

“…2), and were counted as one group. They were, however, isolated from different sites, 1 each from 2 of the villages (13,19) and 2 from the town of V'ellore itself (147,192). These plasmids also encoded only trimethoprim resistance out of all the antimicrobials tested.…”

“…In 1990, almost universal carriage of enterobacteria resistant to ampicillin, chloramphenicol and trimethoprim was reported in south India [13] in the town of Vellore and 3 rural villages near to this town. In this present study, the nature of the resistance to trimethoprim in these strains is investigated and the genes mediating this resistance are identified.…”