Emerging quinolones resistant transfer genes among gram-negative bacteria, isolated from faeces of HIV/AIDS patients attending some Clinics and Hospitals in the City of Benin, Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

A survey of 1431 gram-negative bacilli from June 2001 to September 2005 were obtained from the faeces of 920 HIV/AIDS patients attending some Clinics and Hospitals in Benin City, Nigeria, were screened for quinolones resistance gene. The HIV/AIDS patients CD4 cells range was ≤14/mm3 ≥800/mm3 of blood. Out of the 1431 isolates, 343 (23.9%) were resistance to quinolones with a MIC ≥4μg/ml for norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin and pefloxacin while a MIC of ≥32 µg/ml for nalidixic acid. The screened isolates include Pseudomonas aeruginosa 64(18.7%), E coli 92(26.8%), Klebsiella pneumoniae 53(15.4%), Salmonella typhi 39(11.4%), Shigella dysenteriae 36(10.5%), Proteus mirabilis 34(9.9%) and Serratia marcescens 25(7.3%). The average resistance of the isolates to the various quinolones ranged from 42.7% to 66.7%. Klebsiella were the most resistant isolates with a mean resistance of 66.7% while Proteus were the less resistant isolates with a mean resistance of 42.7%. Most isolates were resistant to Nalidixic acid followed by norfloxacin while the less resistant were to the pefloxacin. The frequency of qnr genes transfer to EJRifr as recipient ranged from 2 x 10-2 to 6 x 10-6 with an average of 2 plasmids per cell. The molecular weight of the plasmids ranged from <2.9kbp to <5.5 kbp. This indicated that plasmids allowed the movement of genetic materials including qnr resistant genes between bacteria species and genera in Benin City, Nigeria.

Keywords

• Resistance Gene Transfer
• HIV/AIDS
• Gram-negative bacilli