ANTIBIOTIC SUSCEPTIBILITY AND ITS GENETIC ANALYSIS OF VIBRIO CHOLERAE NON-O1, NON-O139 FROM ENVIRONMENTAL SOURCES IN LAO PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

In order to determine the epidemiological features of cholera in Lao PDR, the presence of mobile genetic elements such as plasmid, class I integron and SXT element in <i>V. cholerae</i> isolated from surface water were examined. Among the 22 strains isolated from 13 distantly separated sampling sites, no mobile genetic elements associated with drug resistance were found reflecting the antibiogram of the strains. Nevertheless, cholera epidemics due to multiple drug resistant <i>V. cholerae</i> occurred repeatedly in those areas until 2000.