Enterotoxigenicity and drug sensitivity of staphylococci from children aged five years and below with sporadic diarrhoea.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the incidence of enterotoxigenic strains of staphylococci in children aged five years and below suffering from sporadic diarrhoea and their antibiotic susceptibility pattern. DESIGN Collection of stool samples from children with sporadic diarrhoea and laboratory based microbiological analysis. SETTING Microbiology Research Laboratory, Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Parasitology, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. RESULTS Out of one thousand seven hundred and sixty one diarhoeic faecal specimens collected, one hundred and seven strains of staphylococci were isolated as pure culture. Seventy two of these 107 staphylococci were coagulase positive S. aureus, 33 strains were S. epidermidis and two strains were S. saprophyticus. Sixty one (84.7%) of 72 isolates of S. aureus produced enterotoxins. Staphylococcal enterotoxins A was produced singly by 37(60.7%) of the toxigenic strain, while 12(19.7%) produced enterotoxin D alone. Two strains produced both enterotoxins A and C, six strains produced both enterotoxins A and D, one strain produced enterotoxins A, C and D while two strains produced enterotoxins A, B, and D. Most strains were resistant to pennicilin, with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) within the range of 1-16 microg/ml. CONCLUSION Enterotoxigenic strains of S. aureus were recovered from children aged five years and below suffering from sporadic diarhoea. The incidence rate was 3.5% of the samples investigated. Results of their antibiogram revealed that chloramphenicol, gentamicin, cephalothin and clindamycin would be appropriate for treatment of such diarrhoea after the clinical value of the antibiotics in young children has been evaluated.