[Antibiotic sensitivity of Vibrio cholerae 01, isolated in the Ukraine in 1994]

One thousand and four hundred strains of V. cholerae 01 isolated in 1994 in the Ukraine were studied with respect to their antibiotic susceptibility and resistance. The study showed that it was possible not only to estimate the present tendencies in and the regularities of the change in their character but also to presuppose the probable circulation and incidence of the microbe based on the differences in the susceptibility, frequency and resistance pattern of the strains of V. cholerae 01 isolated from the environment and humans before and during the cholera outbreak. Unlike the strains of V. cholerae 01 isolated from the environment before the outbreak, the strains isolated during the outbreak from the environment and humans were characterized by resistance to levomycetin (chloramphenicol) and streptomycin. The results suggested that the cholera outbreak in 1994 was incidental. The data are useful for cholera epidemic surveillance. However, the final conclusion is possible after investigation of the gene type pattern in the circulating V. cholerae strains.