Speciation and Antibiotic Susceptibility Pattern of Shigella isolates in a Rural Tertiary Care Hospital, Kolar

Abstract

Shigellosis is the most important cause of bacillary dysentery. It’s a major public health problem. It is endemic in many developing countries resulting in a significant amount of mortality and morbidity. The incidence is 90 million with 6,00,000 deaths world over. In India, there is an emergence of resistance to Shigella resulting in limitation of treatment. To study the prevalence of Shigella species and their antibiogram in stool samples obtained from patients treated for dysentery at Rural Tertiary Care Hospital. A retrospective analysis of the Shigella isolates obtained from 400 stool samples from patients with dysentery, treated at Rural Tertiary Care Hospital from 2015 -2019 was conducted. The isolates were identified by conventional methods and antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed by Kirbybauers disk diffusion method and analysed. The percentage of isolation of Shigella species at our centre was 5% with Shigella flexneri being the predominant species isolated. A progressive pattern of resistance was observed. 100% strains of Shigella flexneri and Shigella sonnei were resistant to cotrimoxazole and nalidixic acid. 75% of Shigella flexneri were resistant to fluoroquinolones and 25% resistant to third-generation cephalosporins. 100% isolates were sensitive to azithromycin. In view of rampant resistance observed among Shigella species, it is a need to test these isolates for antibiotic susceptibility and treat the patients based on the antibiogram.