Epidemiology of antibiotic resistance in Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso(West Africa) is a tropical country with a high incidence of infectious diseases.The uncontrolled use of antibiotics against bacterial pathogens has given rise to the emergence of antibiotic resistance in this country.The aims of this study were;i) to determine the prevalences of the most important pathogenic bacteria isolated in the town of Ouagadougou;ii) to identify the bacterial species which have acquired resistance as a result of antibiotic selection;iii) to compare antibiotic-resistances of Escherichia coli isolated from stool culture in the present study with results obtained in 2002 from strains collected in the same structure in Burkina Faso;iv) to determine the trend of antibiotic resistance in Burkina Faso in order to give local advice on the most appropriate empiric antibiotic therapy.Six thousand two hundred and sixty four samples of blood,stools, urine,sputum,pus and vaginal secretion were collected and analyzed in Saint Camille Medical Center(SCMC) laboratory from May 2001 to May 2006.Out of the 6264 samples tested no pathogen was identified in 1583(25.31%),whilst 4681(74.73%) were positive with the incidence of the microrganisms isolated being as follows;Escherichia coli 1291(27.6%),Staphylococcus aureus 922(19.7%),Salmonella spp 561(12. 0%),Streptococcus spp 499(10.7%),Klebsiella spp 359(7.7%),Shigella spp(6.3%),Acinetobacter spp 266(5.7%) and others 783(16.7%).Among the isolated pathogens,the highest resistance was found to amoxicillin:Proteus spp 95,6%,Escherichia coli 78,2%,Salmonella spp 62,2%,Shigella spp 73,4% and Klebsiella spp 89,9%,followed by resistance to ampicillin and cotrimoxazole.Comparing the prevalence of antibiotic resistance of Escherichia cob’from stool cultures isolated during 1999-2000 to that of 2001-2006, a significant reduction was found which could be due to the improved use of antibiotics in recent years.The reduced antibiotic-resistance observed in pathogens isolated in Burkina Faso during this study as compared to previous data,could be the result of setting up microbiological epidemiological monitoring centres,in tropical countries,to better control the emergence of bacterial antibiotic-resistance.