It was not so far back in the past when the drug resistance of Shigella raised concern among public as well as professional circles. However, since drug resistant Shigella was at first isolated in 1954, not only Shigella but also various intestinal flora with high antibiotic resistance have incessantly and increasinglybeen reported. Drug resistance of Escherichia coli is also one of the problems on which attentions of both bacteriologist and clinicians have been paid.
It is thought to be of much value to check the antibiotic resistance of pathogenic as well as non-pathogenic intestinal microorganisms at the present stage almost fifteen years after the first isolation of drug resistant Shigella becilli. In this respect, comparative studies concerning drug resistance between some standard strains which were isolated prior to the era of such wide use of antibiotics and recently isolated strains of Shigella, Salmonella and Escherichia coli, were conducted.
Surveyed were 43 strains of Ewing's standard Shigella, 410 of Shigella isolated in Kawasaki city in 1966 (262 strains) and in 1967 (148), 38 of Edwards's standard Salmonella, 60 of Salmonella typhosa isolated at several institutes in Tokyo and Kanagawa prefecture in 1964-1966, 128 of Salmonella other than typhosa isolated in Kawasaki city in 1966-1967 from human beings, 200 of Salmonella isolated from animals, 100 of Salmonella originated from the river water, 90 of Kauffmann's standard Escherichia coli, 500 of Escherichia coli isolated from healthy kitchen workers and 31 of Escherichia coli isolated from dysentery patients. Antibiotics tested for the drug resistance were both usual ones such as CP, TC, SM and SA and secondary ones such as Kanamycin (KM), Colistin (CL), Frazoridon (FZ), Narisic Acid (NA), Aminobenzyl Penicillin (AP), and Paromomycin (PM). In addition, to see relations of colicin types with drug resistance, colicin typing was done on Shigella sonnei.
Bacilli viable in 100 mcg/ml concentrations of any one or more of above mentioned ten drugs were referred as drug resistant.
The results obtained were as follows:
1. Drug resistance of Shigella:
1) No drug resistant bacilli were found in Ewing's standard strains.
2) In Shigella flexneri isolated in 1966, the incidence rate of drug resistant bacilli was 100%, 63.6% being singly SA-resistant, followed by 22.7% of quadruple (CP, TC, SM, SA) resistant ones. In 1967, the rate as a whole dropped to 87.9%, singly SA-resistant ones decreased whereas quadruple (CP, TC, SM, SA) resistant ones remarkably increased (54.5%).
3) In Shigella sonnei, the rate was 97.9% and 100% in 1966 and 1967 respectively, most of them being quadruple (CP, TC, SM, SA) resistant. One strain of the isolates in 1967 demonstrated multiple (including AP) drug resistance.
4) Colicin type 14 was predominant among Shigella sonnei isolated both in 1966 and in 1967, followed by type 6, sum total of the two reaching about 90%. Most of them were found quadruple (CP, TC, SM, SA) resistant.
2. Drug resistance of Salmonella:
The lowest in the incidence rate of drug resistant strains was Salmonella typhosa (1.5%), followed by Edwards' standard strains (19.2%), strains from animals (32%), strains from the river water (60%). Salmonella isolated from human beings showed the highest rate (73.9%). Most of these Salmonella showed single (SA) drug resistance, whereas multiple drug resistance including AP-resistance has emerged in the small number of them.
3. Drug resistance of Escherichia coli:
The incidence rate of drug resistant strains was 7.2% in Kauffmann's standard strains, 22.6% in strains from healthy persons, and 48.4% in strains from dysentery patients. Drug resistance patterns of the standard strains were almost the same as those of strains from healthy persons, showing mostly single or duple resistance to SA, SM, or AP.
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