Isolation and Antibiotic Susceptibility Patterns of Shigella and Salmonella
among Under 5 Children with Acute Diarrhoea: A Cross-Sectional Study at
Selected Public Health Facilities in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Background: Diarrhoeal illness remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among children<5 years of age worldwide. In Ethiopia, about 230,000 deaths estimated to occur. Shigella and Salmonella are major causes of gastroenteritis in children and is associated with high resistance levels. Thus, the aims of this study was to isolate and determine susceptibility patterns of Shigella and Salmonella, isolated from under five children with diarrhoea attending at some selected health facilities in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Methods: A total of 253 children 115 males and 138 females with acute diarrhoea were enrolled. Stool samples were cultured and isolated Shigella and Salmonella species were run for antimicrobial susceptibility testing using disk diffusion method.

Results: A total of 190 entropathogens were isolated. Sixty one (24.1%) was E. coli, (9.1%) was Shigella followed by (3.95%) Salmonella and Citrobacter species and 86 (34.0%) was parasites. The overall resistance rates of isolated Shigella and Salmonella spp were high for Ampicillin (95.7%, 80.0%) and Augmentin (91.4%, 80) respectively. However, high sensitivity was observed among both isolates for Ciprofloxacin (91.3%, 100%) and Ceftraxion (91.4%, 100%). More than 87% of Shigella species were multiple resistances (resistance for two or more antibiotics). Whereas, 70.0% for Salmonella species. The prevalence of Shigella species was significantly varied among children with different employment parent’s status. Raw meat consumption was an independent predictor variable for exposures of Salmonella infection (P≤0.05).

Conclusion: Isolation of high frequency of multidrug resistant Shigella and Salmonella spp. from children in the study area is an alarming for the present situation of emerging drug resistance. However, there is still a chance to use ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone in area of no culture and sensitivity test performed.