RISK SURVEILLANCE OF MULTIDRUG RESISTANT PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA IN WATER AND PLASMID RELATEDNESS WITH CLINICAL STRAINS IN ABEOKUTA, SOUTHWEST NIGERIA

Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa as an opportunistic pathogen has been a subject of investigation due its intrinsic drug resistance.ª¤?ª¤? Its frequent presence in drinking, domestic and recreational water highlights its significance to public health.ª¤?ª¤? This study was aimed at risk surveillance of multidrug resistant environmental P. aeruginosa in water and their plasmid relatedness with clinical strains in Abeokuta, southwestern Nigeria.ª¤?ª¤? A total of forty-one (41) strains with prevalence: well water (29.3%); swimming pool (22.0%) hospital storage tank (19.5%); tap water (14.6%); sachet water (12.2%); and bottled water (2.4%) respectively were isolated from two hundred and eighty eight (288) water samples and were compared with 43 clinical strains from wound (37.3%), blood (11.6%), ear swab (20.9%)ª¤? and urine (20.9%)ª¤? and eye swab (9.3%).ª¤?ª¤?ª¤?ª¤? Both environmental and clinical strains were all multidrug resistant, though with different plasmid profile.ª¤? Plasmid with molecular weight size of 2010bp was detected in only 1 (2.5%) out of the 41 environmental strains as against 9 (20.93%) of the 43 clinical strains having between 22520-23130bp molecular weight.ª¤? All strains harboring plasmid were resistant to varied types of more than seven drugs out of the eleven tested (gentamycin 10ª¤?g, erythromycin 15ª¤?g, ampicillin 10ª¤?g, augmentin 10ª¤?g, cotrimoxazole 25ª¤?g, tetracycline 30ª¤?g, streptomycin 10ª¤?g, ciprofloxacin 5ª¤?g, cloxacillin 5ª¤?g, amoxicillin 25ª¤?g, and cefuroxime 30ª¤?g). ª¤?Strains without plasmid were also multidrug resistant.ª¤? This finding would be important in the control of multidrug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in Nigeria.