Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance of Vibrio cholerae in Thailand from 2000 to 2004
Krongkaew Supawat MSc*, Sriwanna Huttayananont MSc*, Pathom Sawanpanyalert MD, DrPh*, Nalinee Aswapokee MD**, Piroon Mootsikapun MD***
Affiliation : * National Institute of Health, Department of Medical Sciences, Nonthaburi, Thailand
** Unit of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Internal Medicine, Siriraj University Hospital,
Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
*** Infectious Disease Unit, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand
Objective : To study the trends of antimicrobial resistance pattern of Vibrio cholerae in Thailand between
2000 and 2004.
Material and Method: All isolates of Vibrio cholerae from 28 hospitals across Thailand between 2000 and
2004 were tested for their susceptibility to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, norfloxacin, tetracycline and
trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole by the disk diffusion method (Kirby Bauer). The relevant data were collected
and analyzed by the WHONET software program supported by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Results : V. cholerae O1, serotype Inaba was much more common than serotype Ogawa. The most frequent type
of clinical specimens that V. cholerae isolated was the stool. There was no trend of increasing resistance of all
V. cholerae both O1 and non O1. Over all average rates of tetracycline resistance of V. cholerae O1, Inaba and
Ogawa were 0.9% and 16.3% respectively and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole resistance were 0.4% and
60.5% respectively. The strains were not resistant to norfloxacin.
Conclusion : In Thailand, V. cholerae O1 were still susceptible to tetracycline and norfloxacin which were the
most frequently antimicrobial used for the treatment of cholera. The trend of increasing resistance during the
study period was not detected.
Keywords : Anti-infective agents, Drug resistance, bacterial, Microbial sensitivity tests, Population surveil- lance, Thailand, Vibrio cholerae
