Minimum inhibitory concentration of antibiotics against bacteria associated with childhood diarrhoea in children attending a district hospital in Kenya

ABSTRACT

A study to determine the in vitro activity of antibiotics to bacterial pathogens isolated from diarrhoea stools of 125 patients reporting to the Paediatric Filter Clinic at Malindi District Hospital with acute diarrhoea was done. The ages of the patients ranged from one to five years. Samples of diarrhoea stools were collected before drug administration. 33 strains of Enterobacteriacea comprising 12 strains of pathogenic Escherichia coli; 13 strains of Salmonella SPP and 8 strains of Shigella SPP were isolated and minimum inhibitory concentration of five antibiotics determined. 5 pure antibiotic powders; namely; ampicillin; tetracycline; kanamycin; trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and nalidixic acid were tested using the agar dilution method (Muellerinton agar). The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the 5 antibiotics used ranged between 8#gml-1 and 128#gml-1 excep for t trimethoprin-sulfamethoxazole which had a MIC range of 0.25#gml-1 to 16#gml-1. Hyper resistance of the isolates was observed for ampicillin; tetracycline; kanamycin and nalidixic acid. The results of this work suggest that there is circulation of resistant strains of bacteria causing diarrhoea within the community around Malindi