Present status of drug resistance in cases of enteric fever in Rajasthan

Drug Sensitivity of Salmonella typhi isolated from 30 blood culture positive cases of typhoid fever who presented between Nov. '93 to Aug. '94 was tested to determine their in vitro susceptibility to various antimicrobiols. 56.6% showed resistance to chloramphenicol, 70% to amoxycillin, 50% to amikacin, 43.3% to gentamycin, 40% to ampicillin, 33.3% to cotrimoxazole, 30% to cephalexin and very low resistance (6.6% each) to ceftriaxone and cefotaxime. All the 30 cases were sensitive to ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin. 17 chloramphenicol resistant typhoid cases in whom chloramphenicol was initially started failed to respond to this drug even after 4-5 days therapy, indicating that in vivo response matched with the in vitro sensitivity. Clinical response to ciprofloxacin, whether given initially or following chloramphenicol failure was prompt and satisfactory. Ciprofloxacin thus appears to be a good choice in such cases.