epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance of enteric pathogens in dhahira region, oman

background: we reviewed the monthly laboratory surveillance reports and hospital laboratory database in dhahira region, oman. methods: all patients for whom a stool sample examination request was made from 1 st january 2002 to 31 st december 2006 (5 years) were included in the study. antimicrobial resistance pattern was studied for 2 years period. the cultures were done using standard laboratory procedures and antibiotic sensitivity by kirby bauer disc diffusion method. results: of the 85,210 stool samples examined, 18% showed positive result for one or more parasitic infection. the most common were e. hystolytica (7.1%), giardia (7.9%) and e. coli (1.9%). a total of 7,830 cultures were done, among them 11.4% showed positive result for bacterial pathogen. the most common were salmonella (5.8%) and shigella species (4.4%). the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of 265 bacterial pathogens were analyzed. of the shigella strains, 71.8% were resistant to trimethoprim/sulphamethoxazole (sxt) and 39.4% to ampicillin and 32.4% to tetracycline. salmonella and e. coli strains were frequently resistant to ampicillin (12.5% and 47.7%, respectively) conclusion: this study provides important information on the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance pattern of enteric pathogens in dhahira region population. sxt, ampicillin, and tetracycline are the drugs commonly associated with resistance.