+44 330 818 7254Ngwai YB*, Nwankwo HN, Adoga MP
Diarrhea is one of the major opportunistic infections associated with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), with the major causative agent being Escherichia coli. This study investigates the occurrence of multi-drug resistance in Escherichia coli from patients with HIV/AIDS attending the Federal Medical Center, Keffi, Nigeria. E. coli from stool samples of consenting HIV/AIDS patients were isolated and tested for their susceptibility to commonly used antimicrobial agents using the disk diffusion method as described by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). E. coli was isolated at the rate of 76.7%. All the isolates were resistant to antibiotics with lower frequencies for gentamicin (56.1%) and streptomycin (56.8%). The most common resistance phenotypes were SXT, CH, SP, CIP, AM, AU, CN, PEF, S, OFX and SXT, CH, SP, CIP, AM, AU, PEF, OFX with frequencies at 26.5% and 27.3% respectively. All the E. coli are multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) isolates with most (66, 50%) being jointly resistant to eight antibiotics. MAR indices were also very high (all above 0.2) and suggest prior exposure of all the isolates to antibiotics. The high isolation rate provides justification for the monitoring of HIV/AIDS patients for E. coli; and testing for susceptibility to antibiotics before prescription will ensure adequate treatment of infection arising from these stool pathogens and reduction in the spread of bacterial resistant strain.
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