Gore

Kyle Gore
11/5/14
Bio 1615
Bacteria Resistance Summary
Resistance to common antibiotics is a growing problem in todays world. Sudan bacterial
infections such as urinary and gastrointestinal could be used as an example. Scientist performed
sensitivity tests on four-hundred and ninety-seven bacterial isolates from Sudanese patients with
diarrhea or urinary tract infections. Scientists started by collecting stool and urine samples (one
thousand and twenty stool, and one thousand five hundred urine) from inpatients and outpatients.
Tests were conducted in four urban areas and two rural areas. Samples were cultured in
McConkey and blood agar. McConkey agar is a culture medium that grows Gram-negative
bacteria and differentiate them for what is known as a lactose fermentation test. Blood agar is a
medium packed with nutrients that allow the most fastidious bacteria to grow.
The test results they gathered from their experiment show that certain strains of bacteria
had built up resistance to certain antibiotics. Shigella was the most common pathogen isolated
for gastrointestinal track infections. Salmonella paratyphi A and B showed sensitivity to all
drugs except for one S. typhi which resisted cotrimoxazole, tetracycline, and sulfonamide. To
me, this indicated that the bacteria was evolving and building a resistance to the antibiotics being
used to treat the bacterial infections.
For the next test they tested the isolated urinary pathogens. Based off their isolation of
bacteria they were able to isolate the following, E. coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, and Proteus
mirabilis pathogens. These bacteria displayed a very high resistance when combine with

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ampicillin, amoxicillin, cotrimoxazole, tetracycline, sulfonamide, trimethoprim, streptomycin,

and carbenicillin. However, as bad as these pathogens look they still showed low resistance to
nalidixic acid, cephalexin, and ceftazidime.
The issue is thought to be due to the misuse of antibiotics or the use of antimicrobial
agents in general. In this study, the scientists have identified the cause of this built up resistance
to the inappropriate use of antibiotics. In Sudan, the reason driven for this is because it is a
developing country. They list five main reasons in their research.
1) the wide use of antibiotics due to the high prevalence of infectious diseases, 2) a
shortage of phy- sicians, 3) selective prescribing due to cost constraints and the pressure of
pharmaceutical companies promotional ac- tivities, 4) lack of laboratory support in rural areas,
and 5) the difculties in distributing information regarding antibi- otic resistance. An important
contributing factor in the Sudan is the deliberate self-administration of antibiotics by patients
themselves when they are ill with diarrheal diseases.19 our ndings stress the need for
distributing reliable information about antibiotic resistance and for ongoing drug-resistance
surveillance. They conclude this is why large diarrhea outbreaks and epidemics occur leading
to a high mortality rate in children.
Their findings do bring up an interesting question for me. How long until bacteria and
viruses build up resistance to all of our current antibiotics? Due to my lack of knowledge on
bacteria and antibiotics maybe this isnt a real big issue. However, it has driven my curiosity to
learn more to gain a better understanding.

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Works Citied
"Antimicrobial Agent Resistance in Bacterial Isolates from Patients with Diarrhea and Urinary
Tract Infection in the Sudan." Antimicrobial Agent Resistance in Bacterial Isolates
Patients with Diarrhea and Urinary Tract Infection in the Sudan. ASTMH, 1 Nov. 2000.
Web. 7 Nov. 2014.