Antibiogram and recent incidence of multi-drug resistant carbapenemase producing Escherichia coli isolated from paediatric patients

Objective: To gauge the recent breadth of MDR E. coli along with antibiogram of carbapenemase producing (CP) E. coli among children from an institute which receives patients from all over Punjab. Methods: The bacterial strains of E. coli isolated from various specimens of patients were collected from April 2017 to August 2018 and processed using standard biochemical tests and API 20E system (bioMerieux). Phenotypic screening for CP E. coli was done by the modified Hodge test, whereas antibiotic susceptibility testing was done with Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion technique. Results: Total of 6,468 bacterial strains were isolated, out of which 1,552 (24%) were E. coli. Carbapenem resistance was observed in 245 (16%) strains, amongst which 113 (46%) were confirmed to be CP. E. coli isolated from males were higher as compared to females (p<0.05). Majority of the organisms were isolated from blood (37.2%) samples. The hospital discharged about 65% of patients, while 23% left against medical advice. Overall MDR amongst E. coli was 93.26%. Colistin sulphate (15.9%) and nitrofurantoin (16.8%) showed the most efficacy followed by amikacin (15%) and fosfomycin (10.6%). Conclusion: The isolation of high number of MDR E. coli amongst the paediatric patients is worrisome, which could serve as a potential source of horizontal genes transfer to other genera.