Epidemiology of Antibiotic Resistance in Human Isolates of Enterobacteriaceae in Sicily

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Abstract
The Authors have studied the antimicrobial susceptibility of 1073 clinical isolates of various genera of Enterobacteriaceae (collected during the period July-December 1988) to ampicillin, piperacillin, cefotaxime, ceftazidime, ceftriaxone, aztreonam, imipenem, gentamicin, amikacin, netilmicin, norfloxacin, and ciprofloxacin. Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined by Bauer--Kirby disk diffusion method. Of 1073 tested bacteria, 704 (65.6%) produced beta-lactamase detectable by nitrocefin test. The highest percentage of resistant strains occurred with ampicillin (70%) followed by piperacillin (24%) and cefotaxime (19%). Lower percentages of resistant strains were found for gentamicin (10%), aztreonam (8%), netilmicin (7%), norfloxacin (5%) and amikacin (4%). Two percent of the strains were resistant to ciprofloxacin and 0.5% to imipenem. The incidence of resistance in Klebsiella sp., Entero-bacter sp., E.coli and Proteus sp. was compared to that found among 872 strains isolated during July-Dec. 1984. In all the Enterobacteriaceae, mainly Enterobacter sp., the increase in the resistance was high for ampicillin, piperacillin and cefotaxime and lower for gentamicin.