Evidence of the Transmission of Resistance of Enterobacteria to Betalactamines Between Mothers and Children in Brazzaville

Abstract

Beta-lactams have always been used in many cases as first-line antibiotics in human medicine. The emergence of beta-lactamase-producing strains of Enterobacteriaceae is nowadays a public health problem. In order to demonstrate the transplacental transmission of enterobacteria resistance to beta-lactams between mothers and their children. Seventy-two (72) stool samples were collected from mothers and two-day-old newborns at the Talangaï referral hospital. Isolation of enterobacteria was done on selective media. Identification of beta-lactamase producing strains was performed by biochemical characteristics using API 20E strips. The resistance profile to carbapenems, monobactam and cephalosporins was performed by antibiogram. A total of 50 strains were purified and identified, of which 30 (60%) were isolated from the mother-newborn couple and 20 (40%) from the newborns. Among these strains, we identified in the mother-newborn group: 10 (33%) <i>Enterobacter </i>sp, 10 (33%) <i>Escherichia coli</i>, 6 (20%) <i>Klebsiella</i> oxytoca; 2 (7%) <i>Shigella </i>sp and 2 (7%) <i>Salmonella</i> sp. High resistance to carbapenems and cephalosporins was observed with <i>Shigella</i> sp. The other strains of enterobacteria isolated from newborns only, among which were identified: 7 (35%) <i>Escherichia coli</i>; 5 (25%) Klebsiella oxytoca; 5 (25%) <i>Enterobacter </i>sp, 3 (15%) <i>Shigella</i> sp. newborns without their mothers showed a variable resistance profile to the antibiotics tested. Three resistance phenotypes were observed in the mother-newborn group including: FEP PRL CL, FEP AMP MA CR ATM IMP ETP and FEP AMP CAZ MA CL ETP. The resistance phenotypes observed in the mothers were identical to those found in their respective offspring. These results show that each newborn is born with a rate of resistance acquired at birth, which testifies to a transplacental transmission between mother and child, consequence of the emergence of the resistance of enterobacteria to betalactamines in the Congolese population.