Antibiogram and Plasmid Profile analysis of Bacterial Strains from Diabetic Skin Ulcers

Abstract

A diabetic skin ulcer (DSU) is an injury found on the skin of diabetics which affects both the surface and deeper tissue of the skin leading to disintegration. Infections on diabetic skin ulcers are usually caused by an array of bacterial strains; therefore, appropriate management of the infections involves choosing the appropriate antibiotics to treat the wounds. Swabs samples from the wounds were collected using swab sticks. The isolates were cultured using standard microbiological techniques. Antibiotics susceptibility of the bacterial isolates was determined using the modified Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. The multidrugresistant bacteria were subjected to plasmid profiling and curing to determine if the resistances displayed were plasmid or chromosomally mediated. The Gram-positive bacteria showed the highest susceptibility to gentamycin (71.33 %) and were least sensitive to amoxicillin (21.11 %); while the Gram-negative bacteria showed the highest susceptibility to ciprofloxacin (78.83 %) and were least susceptible to augmentin (26.08 %). Staphylococcus aureus, Alcaligenes faecalis and Acinetobactersp. lost their antibiotic-resistant plasmid markers after acridine orange mediated curing while E. coli and K. pneumoniae retained their markers.