Drug resistance among Salmonellae in Kuwait

The status of drug resistance among Salmonella spp. prevalent in Kuwait during 1979-1980 has been assessed. Antibiotic sensitivity of 345 clinical isolates against 14 antimicrobial agents was done by disc-diffusion technique and their MIC was determined by plate dilution. Only 9.6% of these isolates were sensitive to all the 14 drugs. There was resistance to sulfisoxazole (78%), tetracycline (69%), kanamycin (61%), ampicillin (56%), streptomycin (53%), chloramphenicol (38%) and mezlocillin (38%). Multiple drug resistance (three or more drugs) was seen in 71% of isolates and many of them were resistant to five or more drugs. The common resistance patterns observed were ACGKSSuT, ACKSSuT, ACSSuT, and ASSuT. Co-trimoxazole was the drug of choice as only 15 strains (4%) were resistant to it. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the resistant strains was invariably high. Salmonella typhimurium was the commonest (41%) single species and the frequency and level of resistance was higher in this serotype than in others.