Prevalence of Antibiotic Resistance in Clinical Strains of E. Coli and Their Control

The present study was to evaluate the isolates of antibiotic resistant E. coli in clinical samples and their control. A total of 50 E. coli strains were isolated from samples such as ENT, Pus and UTI. 5 different antibiotics were tested. 20% of the strains showed resistance to single antibiotic (AMP, AMX), whereas rest of the strains to 2-5 antibiotics (i.e.) AMP-AMX (6%); AMP-AMX-CXM (16%), AMP-AMX-CN (20%), AMPAMX-CN-CPD (20%), and AMP-AMX-CXM-CN-CPN (18%). MAR index for the isolates was found to be from 0.4-1.0. 4% of the strains showed a MAR index of 0.4 and 20% strains showed a MAR index of 1.0. The presence of ESBL production in various E.coli strains which was indicative through exhibition of resistance to first, second as well as third generation cephalosporin. Among 50 strains, 30 strains (60%) were observed to possess CTX type of β-lactamases. 62% of clinical strains were positive for haemolysis. Among them 20 (87%) of them were from UTI samples, 5 (29.41%) of them were from ENT samples and 6 (60%) of them were from Pus samples. Plasmid profile of the E.coli isolates was found to be >23kb. All the resistant strains tested against β-lactam antibiotics, lost resistance during plasmid curing.