ANTIBIOTIC SUSCEPTIBILITY/RESISTANCE AMONG SALMONELLA SPECIES ISOLATED IN NON-HOSPITALISED PATIENTS IN THE CANTON OF SARAJEVO

Abstract

Background: Salmonellosis, a disease which occurs following the consumption of food contaminated with salmonella, is most frequently present in young children and older immunocompromised individuals. This condition must be treated with antibiotics. The increased degree of morbidity comes in relation to the increased resistance of Sallmonellae species to antibiotics. Resistance has considerably been increased in approximately the last twenty years, thanks mostly to the establishment of diagnoses ex juvantibus, the prescription of therapies without antimicrobial susceptibility/resistance testing, as well as the massive, unjustified usage of antibiotics. Purpose: The goal of this study was to examine the representation of antibiotic susceptibility/resistance of Salmonella species isolated in non-hospitalised patients. Materials and methods: In a microbiological laboratory in the Institute for Public Health Canton of Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), analysed were samples of stool and urine of non-hospitalised patients with our without developed symptoms of salmonellosis in the period from one year. Results: Of the total 69 patients infected with salmonella, in 65 (94.2%) S. enteritidis group D was isolated, in 3 (4.3%) S. species group B, and in 1 (1.4%) patient there was a S. enteritidis group D and a S. species group C. Isolated strains were resistant to Ampicillin in 63 (91.3%) patients, while to Ciprofloxacin and Bactrim there was no established resistance. Conclusions: The most commonly isolated bacterial strain was S. enteritidis group D. Isolated strains show different susceptibility/resistance to tested antibiotics, and thus the completion of an antimicrobial susceptibility/resistance test is necessary before adding an antibiotic to the patient’s treatment.

Keywords

• Salmonella species
• salmonellosis
• antimicrobial susceptibility test