ABSTRACT
Background: Diarrhea remains a major public health problem in developing countries. The current study was design to assess the antimicrobial susceptibility testing of bacteria causing diarrhea in children those antibiotics are recommended by Integrated Management-of Childhood illness (IMCI) . Methods: A total number of 114 bacterial pathogens isolated from 432 children patients with diarrhea attending Khartoum Pediatric Hospital & Omdurman Pediatric Hospital during the period of May 2005 to July 2007 were enrolled into the study. The antimicrobial activity against five commonly used antibiotics: ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, co-trimoxazole, nalidixic acid and amoxicillin were performed using Kirby-Bauer method. Results: Out of 114 isolates about 63% were susceptible to co-trimoxazole; where as 71.4% & 80.4% of the isolates were susceptible to amoxicillin & nalidixic acid, respectively. All (100%) of isolated pathogens were susceptible to ciprofloxacin where as the susceptibility of gentamicin among all isolates were 96.4%. Among 61 Shigella spp. isolates only 49.2% were susceptible to co-trimoxazole compared with 54.1% of Shigella spp isolates that were susceptible to amoxicillin. 96.8% of Shigella isolates were susceptible to gentamicin. Conclusion: In vitro sensitivity test of isolates showed that ciprofloxacin, and gentamicin were the most effective antibacterial drugs for bloody diarrhoea compared to co-trimoxazole & amoxicillin