Antibiotic Susceptibility of Helicobacter pylori Isolates from Patients at Nnewi Teaching Hospital, Anambra State

Helicobacter pylori infection is a major public health concern worldwide, and antibiotic resistance is a growing challenge in treating the infection. In Nigeria, the proliferation of resistance H. pylori poses a serious threat to the treatment of this infection. Hence, this study was undertaken to x-ray the susceptibility patterns of conventional antibiotics against H. pylori isolated from patients attending Nnewi Teaching Hospital. A total of 186 stool and blood samples were collected and screened for HP using Columbia agar supplemented with minor nutrients. The isolates were characterized using their morphological, biochemical and molecular properties. The isolates were screened for multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) using the disc diffusion technique. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and student “t” test were used to analyze the data generated from the study at a 95 % confidence level. H. pylori strain K154 (HPK154), H. pylori strain BS07 (HPBS07), H. pylori strain K93 (HPK93) and H. pylori strain K115 (HPK115) were mostly encountered in the study. The isolates were most sensitive to levofloxacin, followed by clarithromycin and grazone, but showed 100 % resistance to amoxicillin and metronidazole. The medical history, sociodemographic data, hygienic profile and behavioural attributes of the participants were statistically non-significant (p≥0.05) as compared to H. pylori susceptibility pattern to conventional antibiotics. Therefore, the study has shown that varying strains of H. pylori encountered in blood and stool samples showed reasonable degrees of resistance, that were not influenced by any studied factors, but levofloxacin proved to be the most suitable antibiotic of choice.