High levels of drug resistance in commensal E. coli in a cohort of children from rural central India

The world is experiencing crisis of antibiotic resistance not only in pathogenic but also in commensal bacteria. We determine the prevalence of antibiotic resistance in commensal Escherichia coli in young children in rural setting of central India and search for its correlations with demographic and behavioral factors. At seven time points during a period of 2 years we collected stool samples from 125 children; aged 1–3 in a rural area of Madhya Pradesh. We isolated six isolates of E. coli per stool sample and subjected them to antibiotic susceptibility testing. We found resistance to ampicillin, quinolones, cephalosporins, sulfamethoxazole, co-trimoxazole, in at least one isolate from 89% to 100% of children. Extended spectrum beta lactamase producing E. coli were identified in all but one child and multidrug resistance was identified in isolates from all children. Female gender (p = 0.04) and higher wealth (p = 0.03) was significantly correlated with less antibiotic resistance. Thus, the high prevalence of antibiotic resistance in commensal E. coli in rural community from India needs urgent measures to control the growing antibiotic resistance crisis.