91ÌÒÉ«

Abstract

Salmonella (S.) enterica serovar typhi is the common cause of bloodstream infections leading to systemic febrile illness and typhoid. S. typhi is a host restricted bacterium that becomes the leading cause of death in developing countries, spread through the fecal-oral route. The current research aimed to investigate the prevalence of multidrug-resistance and extensively drug-resistance S. typhi isolated from the blood samples of typhoid patients. A total of 120 samples were collected from three tertiary care centers in Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan. Blood culture positive samples were inoculated and purified on SS-Agar and XLD agar. For the serovar characterization, Gram�s staining and biochemical tests were executed, which exhibited positive results for catalase and methyl red and confirmed biochemically the test organism is S. typhi. After the phenotypic confirmation through biochemical tests, Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing (AST) was accomplished using the first and second line of antibiotics. Data were analyzed statistically, and an overall 10% prevalence of S. typhi in the research area was calculated. The 25% isolated S. typhi strains were observed as multidrug-resistant bacteria, 58.9% of S. typhi isolates were reported as extensively drug-resistant while 16.7% displayed an unusual antibiogram pattern, showing susceptibility merely against trimethoprim-sulfame- thoxazole and tetracycline and exhibited a resistance pattern against all the other used antibiotics. These sequels are concerning because they will force us to rely on second-line medications. Moreover, the impact of COVID-19, development of mutation in the drug-resistant genes (i.e. azithromycin), and misuse of antibiotics lead to the occurrence of resistance and unusual antibiogram patterns.

Biography

Farhat Jabeen, Student of M.Phil (Microbiology) at University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan