ENTERIC FEVER - CULTURE AND SENSITIVITY PATTERN AND TREATMENT OUTCOME

One hundred cases of enteric fever in the age group of 6 months to 12 years were analysed with respect to culture sensitivity pattern and treatment outcome. Patients were divided into 5 treatment groups - chloramphenicol, amoxycillin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole + furazolidine, gentamicin + cephalexin and ciprofloxacin. Out of 91 culture positive cases, 100% were sensitive to ciprofloxacin followed by gentamicin (84.9%), cephalexin (83.6%), furazolidine (36.6%), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (34.1%), chloramphenicol (34.0%) and amoxycillin (23.8%). In 60 cases resistant to chloramphenicol, resistance to other drugs varied from 20 to 88.3%. The treatment response was 100% to ciprofloxacin, 72.7% to chloramphenicol, 50% to gentamicin + cephalexin, 38.5% to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole + furazolidine and 12.5% to amoxycillin. Out of 48 cases who did not respond to initial regimen, 33 were treated successfully with ciprofloxacin and remaining with other drug regimens. Time taken for defervescence was shortest with gentamicin + cephalexin (4.6±2.0 days) followed by ciprofloxacin (6.1±2.5 days) and chloramphenicol (6.4±3.5 days). There were 3 deaths in this study.