Antimicrobial resistance of bacterial agents of the upper respiratory tract of school children in Buea, Cameroon.

The study was aimed at determining bacterial agents of the upper respiratory tract and the susceptibility patterns of isolates to antibiotics. In total, 200 throat swabs were obtained from students attending different boarding schools within the Buea Municipality and screened to obtain the prevalence of respiratory pathogens and to understand the antibiotic susceptibility patterns of isolates using standard microbiological procedure and the disc-diffusion test. Of the 200 samples screened, 112 (56%) had positive cultures with the dominant bacterial pathogens being Haemophilus influenzae (20%), followed by Streptococcus pneumoniae (15%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (11%), and Staphylococcus aureus (10%). Although 56% of the isolates were recovered from females compared to 44% from males, the difference was not statistically significant (p>0.05). Sixty-seven percent of the pathogens were isolated from the age-group of 10-13 years, 19.6% from the age-group of 14-17 years, and 12.5% from the age-group of 18-21 years. Antibiotic susceptibility testing revealed that gentamicin (92%) and cefuroxime (88.4%) were the most effective antibiotics against the isolates. Generally, susceptibility ranged from 0% to 92% depending on the antibiotic and the species of microorganism. Penicillin had the highest (100%) resistance to all the isolates. The findings revealed that students living in boarding schools in the Buea Municipality were at risk of acquiring upper respiratory tract infections from their peers since the upper respiratory tract of more than 50% of the students was colonized with respiratory pathogens. Although multidrug-resistant strains of organisms were identified, gentamicin and cefuroxime are recommended as the first-line antibiotics of choice against the pathogens. There is, therefore, a need for surveillance of nasopharyngeal carriage of resistant strains of these organisms, especially H. influenzae in unhealthy school children since the vaccine is yet to be introduced in Cameroon. The findings have clinical and epidemiological significance.

Carriage of Vibrio species by shrimps harvested from the coastal waters of South West Cameroon.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence of Vibrio spp in unprocessed shrimps and their susceptibility to antibiotics. DESIGN: A prospective study of Vibrio spp associated with shrimps harvested from the coastal waters of South West Cameroon. SETTING: A laboratory based study at the Department of Life Sciences, University of Buea. Two hundred and thirty six shrimps harvested from the coastal towns of Limbe and Tiko, Cameroon, were examined for the prevalence of Vibrio spp using standard microbiologic procedures. The antibiotic sensitivity of isolates was determined using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion technique. RESULTS: Of the 236 shrimps examined, 73 (30.9%) were contaminated with Vibrio spp. Further, a total of 125 Vibrio strains were isolated from the contaminated shrimps. Of this number, 33 (26.4%) were V. cholerae, 55 (44%) V. parahaemolyticus, 34 (27.2%) V. alginolyticus and three (2.4%) V. vulnificus. Antibiotic susceptibility generally ranged from 68.8% for polymyxin B to 99.2% for gentamycin. Multiple resistant strains were noted, especially with V. parahaemolyticus and V. alginolyticus CONCLUSION: Shrimps maintain a reservoir of potential Vibrio spp in the coastal area of South West Cameroon. This finding is of epidemiologic and clinical significance.

Antibacterial effect of Zingiber officinale and Garcinia kola on respiratory tract pathogens.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the antibacterial activity of Zingiber officinale (ginger) Garcinia kola (bitter kola) on four respiratory tract pathogens. DESIGN: A prospective study based on laboratory investigations. SETTING: Department of Life Sciences, University of Buea. Throat swabs were collected from 333 individuals with running nostrils, cough and/or catarrh in three localities of Buea namely Bokwango, Molyko and Bolifamba. Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae were isolated from the specimens using standard microbiological procedures. The antibacterial activity of ethanolic extracts of ginger and bitter kola, were investigated on these pathogens using the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) and Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) assays. RESULTS: The extracts exhibited antibacterial activity against the pathogens. The MIC of extracts ranged from 0.0003 microg/ml to 0.7 microg/ml for ginger and 0.00008 microg/ml, to 1.8 microg/mL for bitter kola, while MBC ranged from 0.1.35 microg/ml to 2.04 microg/ml for ginger and 0.135 microg/ml to 4.2 microg/ml for bitter kola. CONCLUSION: Results indicated that extracts of ginger root and bitter kola may contain compounds with therapeutic activity.