[Antimicrobial susceptibility and serotyping of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from HIV/AIDS patients]

Sixty-eight strains from seropositive patients seen at "Pedro Kouri" Tropical Medicine Hospital from October 1996 to September 1997 were analyzed in this study. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests by the Kirby-Bauer method and antigenic study through slide agglutination of the somatic antigen were performed in such strains. The most frequent isolated serogroups were 01(27.9%), 011(10%), 06(8.8%) and 05(7.3%); twenty-one strains of 68 isolates (30.9%) could not be serotyped. All the strains were susceptible to gentamycin and azlocylin; most of isolates were susceptible to ceftazidime (n = 66), and ciprofloxacin (n = 62). On the other hand, 25 of the 68 isolates (35.7%) showed resistance to cefotaxime. No direct relation between antibiotic resistance and serologic results could be proved. According to these results, gentamycin is highly effective for treating analyzed strains. In the forthcoming years, beta-lactams and quinolones should be more rationally used so as to prevent the emergence of multi-resistant strains in Cuba.