Abstract:
Background: Diarrheagenic Escherichia Coli (DEC) are
the major cause of diarrhoea in children in developing and
undeveloped countries. Domestic food animals act as reser
voirs of DEC that are transmitted to children below five years
through inadequate hygiene practices.
Aim: To determine the antimicrobial susceptibility pat
terns of DEC strains isolated from children below five years
and food animals in Kisumu County.
Methods: A total of 250 samples, were collected and
analyzed using polymerase chain reaction. The antimicrobial
susceptibility was determined using Kirby-Bauer disc diffu
sion method.
Results: Enteroaggregative E.coli (12%), Enteropathogen
ic E.coli (5%), Enterotoxigenic E.coli (3%) and mixed infec
t
ions (3%) respectively. From the DEC children sample iso
lates, antimicrobial agents showed 84.6% sensitivity towards
Meropenem followed by Gentamicin (80.8%) and then Nali
dixic acid (73.1%). High resistance was recorded among the
Tetracycline and Sulfamethoxazole antibiotics. Of the 26 DEC
children sample isolates, 24(92%) exhibited multidrug resis
tance patterns: 46% showed resistance to four different anti
biotics, 38% to five different antibiotics and 4% to six differ
ent antibiotics. Animal samples showed 100% susceptibility
to most antibiotics, with only two isolates showing multidrug
resistance to five antibiotics and one showing resistance to
four and three antibiotics, respectively. The multidrug index
value for the DEC pathotypes isolated in children was 0.5,
indicating a high risk of DEC transmission.
Conclusion: Multidrug resistant bacteria reported in food
animals and children populations suggested the possibility
of transmission of multidrug resistance bacteria between
children and food animals. Other sources of transmission
also need to be investigated
