Antimicrobial Resistance Profile of Enterobacteriaceae and Drinking Water Quality Among Households in Bule Hora Town, South Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial resistance bacteria and unsafe water are contributing to the growing burden of diseases. Hence, isolation and antimicrobial susceptibility tests for drinking water samples are currently becoming vital to address the human health risks from drinking unsafe water. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the antimicrobial resistance profile of Enterobacteriaceae and quality of drinking water among households in Bule Hora Town, South Ethiopia. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A community-based cross-sectional study was used from June to August 2021. A total of 75 water samples were collected and analyzed at the Microbiological Laboratory of Bule Hora University within 6 hours. A membrane filtration method and biochemical tests were used for the isolation and identification of bacteria. An antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed using Kirby–Bauer disc-diffusion method on Mueller–Hinton Agar. Systematic and simple random probability sampling techniques were used to draw representative samples. The data were entered into Epi Data 3.1 and then exported to SPSS version 25 where univariate and bivariate analyses of the data were conducted. RESULTS: This study indicated that 59 (78.6%), 30 (40%), and 20 (26.6%) of water samples from the storage of households were contaminated with total coliforms, thermo-tolerant coliforms, and Escherichia coli, respectively. Similarly, Salmonella accounted for 18 (24%), Shigella 12 (16%), and other members of the Enterobacteriaceae such as Proteus, Citrobacter, Klebsiella, Escherichia coli, and Enterobacter species were also isolated. All isolates of Enterobacteriaceae showed resistance to amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid and ampicillin. Besides, Shigella showed 10 (83.3%), 2 (16.6%) and 10 (83.3%) and Salmonella showed 16 (88.9%), 5 (27.8%) and 15 (83.3%) resistant to cotrimoxazole, chloramphenicol and tetracycline, respectively. All the tested drinking water samples had no free chlorine at all at point of use. CONCLUSION: There was contamination of drinking water with coliform and antibiotic-resistant Enterobacteriaceae in most surveyed households.