Multiresistance Salmonella Ohio infections at the University Hospital of the West Indies

ABSTRACT

During 1982-83 there was a substantial increase in the number of S. ohio infections at the University Hospital of the West Indies, which coincided with the appearance of strains resistance to chloramphenicol, cotrimoxazole, ampicillin, neomycin and carbenicillin. Multiresistance strains of S. ohio accounted for 19.3 percent of all salmonella isolates during this period and all of 40 strains tested were able to transfer resistance determinants to E. coli K12 J 53-2. S. ohio was cultured from stool (60), blood (5), wounds and abscesses (4) and postmortem material (2). Eighty-six percent of S. ohio infections occurred in children of 3 years old or less. There was a high incidence of gastroenteritis in malnourished children, a 14 percent incidence of localizing infections and a 7 percent incidence of septicaemia. Two infants with severe gastroenteritis and bronchopneumonia died. There were a number of unusual infections including two cases of septicaemia in children receiving chloramphenicol for Haemophilus infleunzae meningitis, a scrotal abscess secondary to extravastion of urine and infected scabies in a child with marasmic kwashiorkor.(Summary)