bla TEM, bla SHV and bla CTX-M-15 Extended Spectrum Beta-lactamase Produced by Acinetobacter baumanii, Enterobacter clocae and Proteus mirabilis from Pregnant Women in Three Secondary Health Care Facilities in South-south, Nigeria

Background/Purpose: Based on fact there is high urinary tract infection and increasing treatment failure among pregnant women and this has led to increased mortality and morbidity among pregnant women, and increased stay in the hospital.

This study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance and distribution of blaTEM, blaCTX-M-15 and blaSHV genes among A. baumannii, P. mirabilis and E. clocae strains isolated from urine samples from pregnant women attending antenatal at three secondary health care facilities south-south Nigeria.

Methods: A. baumannii, P. mirabilis and E. clocae strains were isolated and identified using Microbact 24E. The disc diffusion and combined discs methods were used for testing antimicrobial susceptibility. The presence of ESBL was detected using Double Disk Synergy Test (DDST) and CHROMagar respectively. Plasmid extraction was carried out following the protocol of ZR Plasmid Miniprep-Classic extraction kit. Finally, the frequency of resistant genes including blaTEM, blaCTX-M-15 and blaSHV in selected 50 ESBL producing isolates was studied by PCR and using designed primers.

Results: A total of 252 clinical isolates was collected from three secondary health care facilities in south-south, Nigeria. ESBLs were found in 231 (92%) isolates. blaCTX-M-15 was the commonest genotype (58.3%), followed by blaSHV (43.3%) and blaTEM (43.3%).

Conclusion: ESBL positive strains of Enterobacter clocae, Acinetobacter baumannii and Proteus mirabilis are increasingly found in isolates from pregnant women. The widespread use of antibiotics has caused shifts in bacterial development to overcome the existing mechanisms of combating bacterial infections. These strains become resistant to frequently used antibiotics and they can pass the gene to other bacterial strains, the quick detection of these strains in clinical laboratories an essential step. The frequency of genes encoded ESBL isolates of Enterobacter clocae, Acinetobacter baumannii and Proteus mirabilis may be due to abuse and misuse of antibiotics.