Antibiotic Susceptibility and Detection of Resistance Genes of E. coli among Healthy Pregnant Women in Designated Hospitals around Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria

Abstract

Treatment of E. coli is now a challenge globally, due to continuous increase in resistance towards commonly prescribed antibiotics, thus posing a threat to treatment. Hence, the aim of the study is to determine antibiotics sensitivity and resistance genes of E.coli from apparently healthy pregnant women in Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria using standard methods. A cross-sectional study design was used to collect 150 mid-stream urine (MSU) samples from apparently healthy pregnant women. Standard inoculating loop technique was used by culturing 0.001 ml of MSU on Cysteine Lactose Electrolyte Deficient (CLED) agar, Blood agar and MacConkey agar and incubated at 37 °C for 24 h. A standard agar disc diffusion method was used to determine antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of the isolates. The molecular detection of resistance genes was done using PCR techniques.  The ages of women enrolled in this study ranged from 22 to 42 years (mean ± standard deviation = 31 ± 4.7 years). Eight isolates were positive for E. coli.  Escherichia coli showed high percentage of resistance to ampicillin and low resistance to ciprofloxacin and penicillin. All the E. coli isolates were sensitive to levofloxacin, and most were resistant to Meropenem. Multiple drug resistance was observed in all the isolates. Resistance genes in VIM 390bp, bla ctx-M 585bp and TEM 517bp were detected in some of the representative E. coli isolates profiled. This study identified the presence of Multi-drug resistance genes in E. coli associated UTI among pregnant women in Osogbo.