ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Ludhiana, an industrial city of Punjab, has a large floating population where typhoid has become endemic. A retrospective study was carried out over a period of 20 years (1980-1999) at Ludhiana on the biotyping, phage typing and drug resistance pattern of Salmonella typhi. METHODS: Of a total of 1697 S. typhi isolates obtained, phage typing and biotyping were done of only 1243 isolates. Antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of these isolates was also studied. RESULTS: Of the 1243 S. typhi isolates, 963 (77.5%) and 280 (22.5%) were of biotype I and biotype II respectively. Twenty four different S. typhi phage types were prevalent in Ludhiana in the past two decades. Between 1980 and 1989, more prevalent phage types were phage type A (35%), O (17.6%) and E1 (15.1%). During 1990-1999, there was a considerable increase in the incidence of phage type E1 (48.1%). The cumulative analysis of past two decades revealed that the incidence of phage type E1 (38.8%) was most predominant. In the past one decade (1990-1999), 412 S. typhi isolates of 13 different phage types exhibited multidrug resistance (MDR) pattern ACCoT (resistant to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, co-trimoxazole and tetracycline). High chloramphenicol resistance (74.7%) and MDR pattern ACCoT (68.2%) was shown by phage type E1 of S. typhi. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION: An association was observed between drug resistance and phage type pattern of S. typhi as 70 per cent isolates of S. typhi phage types E1 and O exhibited ACCoT multidrug resistant pattern. Reemergence of chloramphenicol susceptibility in the last decade emphasizes the need for regular antimicrobial surveillance to minimize the misuse of these drugs.