ABSTRACT
Ninety-five clinical strains of Gram-negative bacteria were examined for resistance to mercury, silver and disinfectants. 41% of the strains possessed resistance to mercury, 21% to silver and 7.3% of the strains were resistant to chlorhexidine. Mercury resistance was shown to be plasmid-mediated in 17 strains and silver resistance in 10 strains. Chlorhexidine resistance was not shown to be transferable.
Subject(s)
Chlorhexidine/pharmacology , Disinfectants/pharmacology , Drug Resistance, Microbial , Enterobacteriaceae/drug effects , Mercury/pharmacology , Metals/pharmacology , Pseudomonas/drug effects , R Factors , Silver/pharmacologyABSTRACT
Forty samples of Malaysian cooked foods were examined for the presence of antibiotic-resistant coliforms and R plasmids. Twenty seven (68%) of the foods had antibiotic-resistant coliforms and 5 (13%) had R plasmids. Nineteen samples (48%) had total bacterial counts over 10(6) per gm and in 5 samples, no coliforms were detected. Our findings show that cooked food may be one possible way by which R plasmids are spread. The control of the spread of R plasmids is discussed.