Prevalence of Antibiotic Resistant Genes in Enterobacteriaceae from Public Healthcare Centres in Imo State Nigeria

The present study was targeted at investigating the prevalence of antibiotic resistant genes in Enterobacteriaceae from some public healthcare facilities in Imo State, Nigeria. Using randomized complete block sample design, four public hospitals [Imo State University Teaching Hospital, Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, Aboh-Mbaise General Hospital, and Imo State Specialist Hospital] were randomly selected for the study. Swabs were collected from different items and wards, isolation and culture purification were done using standard procedures. Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method was employed to determine the antibiotic sensitivities of the isolates against 10 different antibiotics. The presence of some resistant genes were determined using forward and reverse primers specific for blaTEM, qnrA, and aac(3)-1 genes. The results showed that P. aeruginosa, E. coli, K. pneumoniae, and Shigella species were the Enterobacteriaceae isolated in this study. Also, the highest mean number of Enterobacteriaceae were isolates from ISUTH (20.67±1.45), followed by ISSH (19.67 ± 0.33), while FMC, Owerri had the least (18.00±1.15). The isolates showed multiple resistances to most of the antibiotics tested. All the isolates were susceptible to Gentamicin, while area of technical uncertainty was noticed for Septrin, Cefalexin, and Streptomycin antibiotics on some isolates. Molecular characterization showed the presence of the three resistant genes investigated. The prevalence of blaTEM, qnrA, and aac(3)-1 resistant gene-bands were 80.0 %, 70.0% and 60.0 %, respectively. These resistant genes were most abundant in K. pneumoniae (93.33 %) and least abundant in Shigella species (33.34 %). The study concluded that the three resistant genes tested were present in Enterobacteriaceae isolated from the healthcare facilities.