Drug resistance of Shigella strains isolated in Ankara, Turkey, 1993-1996

289 Shigella strains were isolated from children at the paediatrics department of Ankara University. 75% of the isolates were S. sonnei and 24.8% were S. flexneri. Each strain was tested for resistance to 9 antimicrobial agents. 79% of the isolates were resistant to streptomycin (S), 56% to tetracycline (T), 55.7% to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (SXT), 27.7% to ampicillin (Am) and 19.7% to chloramphenicol (C). None of the isolates was resistant to ciprofloxacin, nalidixic acid, cephalothin, ampicillin-sulbactam and ceftriaxone. 56% of the isolates were resistant to 3 or more antimicrobial agents. The most frequent pattern of resistance of S. sonnei and S. flexneri strains was SXT, T, S (39.6%) and Am, SXT, T, S, C (48.6%), respectively (p<0.0001). These results demonstrate that trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole should not be used in the treatment of shigellosis.