Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Antibiotic resistance has necessitated fluoroquinolone use but little is known about the selective forces and resistance trajectory in malaria-endemic settings, where selection from the antimalarial chloroquine for fluoroquinolone-resistant bacteria has been proposed.

METHODS:

Antimicrobial resistance was studied in fecal Escherichia coli isolates in a Nigerian community. Quinolone-resistance determining regions of gyrA and parC were sequenced in nalidixic acid resistant strains and horizontally-transmitted quinolone-resistance genes were sought by PCR. Antimicrobial prescription practices were compared with antimicrobial resistance rates over a period spanning three decades.

RESULTS:

Before 2005, quinolone resistance was limited to low-level nalixidic acid resistance in fewer than 4% of E. coli isolates. In 2005, the proportion of isolates demonstrating low-level quinolone resistance due to elevated efflux increased and high-level quinolone resistance and resistance to the fluoroquinolones appeared. Fluoroquinolone resistance was attributable to single nucleotide polymorphisms in quinolone target genes gyrA and/or parC. By 2009, 35 (34.5%) of isolates were quinolone non-susceptible with nine carrying gyrA and parC SNPs and six bearing identical qnrS1 alleles. The antimalarial chloroquine was heavily used throughout the entire period but E. coli with quinolone-specific resistance mechanisms were only detected in the final half decade, immediately following the introduction of the fluoroquinolone antibacterial ciprofloxacin.

CONCLUSIONS:

Fluoroquinolones, and not chloroquine, appear to be the selective force for fluoroquinolone-resistant fecal E. coli in this setting. Rapid evolution to resistance following fluoroquinolone introduction points the need to implement resistant containment strategies when new antibacterials are introduced into resource-poor settings with high infectious disease burdens.