Prevalence of E. coli O157:H7 in the Urinary Tract of Apparently Healthy Students of a Tertiary Institution in Benin City, Nigeria

Abstract

Escherichia coli O157:H7 is an emerging public health concern in most countries of the world and a major causative agent of severe Urinary Tract Infections. The isolation and prevalence of Escherichia coli O157:H7 were conducted according to standard techniques. A total of 150 urine samples were collected from apparently healthy students of the University of Benin, Benin City, and screened based on culture and biochemical. Also, multiple antibiotic susceptibility was evaluated using the Kirby Buer disc diffusion technique. Escherichia coli (34.5%), Staphylococcus aureus (31.3%), Proteus mirabilis (12.2%) and Klebsiella spp (22.0%) were isolated, also 17 (11.33%) were enumerated as E. coli 0157:H7. It was observed that all 17 isolates of E. coli 0157:H7 were resistant to Ciprofloxacin (5µg) and Ceftazidime (30µg) and all the isolates had multiple antibiotic resistant indexes of >2. Hence the need for antibiotic control and public health measures should be put in place for the usage of antibiotics