Transferable drug resistance (R-factor) among the enterobacteriaceae in urinary tract infections: a study at an urban hospital in Bangladesh.

Prevalence and patterns of drug resistance were studied among Enterobacteriaceae, isolated from the cases of urinary tract infection (UTI) attending at an outpatient department of an urban hospital in Dhaka. Out of 90 Enterobacteriaceae isolated, 95.5% were resistant to the different antimicrobials tested. The most common resistance pattern observed was against ampicillin (A), trimethoprim (Tm), sulphamethoxazole (S), tetracycline (T) and chloramphenicol (C) in all four genera of Enterobacteriaceae. Transferable drug resistance (R(+)-factor) was detected in 68.5% Escherichia coli (E. coli), 60% Klebsiella, 66.6% Proteus and 50% Citrobacter strains. By using a resistance transfer factor (RTF) mobilizing strain, resistance factors were transferred from 3 (11.3%) out of 26 non-autotransferable strains. The study revealed that transferable drug resistance is common in organisms isolated from UTI in Bangladesh.