Antimicrobial susceptibility and plasmid profile study of Clinical Shigella isolates in Pakistan

ABSTRACT

The antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of nine .Shigella isolates from clinical sources in Pakistan, were analyzed. The commonly used antibiotics Chloramphenicol, Vancomycin, Velosef, Septran and Rocephin were used in this study. The Shigella isolates showed high resistance against all antibiotics except Vancomycin while 100% resistance was observed for antibiotic, Septran. Most of the Shigella isolates [88.8%] were multiple drug resistant and four different antibiograms were observed among these resistant Shigella isolates. Plasmid profile analysis showed no plasmid in the Shigella isolates and it was presumed that the resistance determinants of Shigella for these antibiotics were located on the chromosomal DNA