Occurrence of drug-resistant bacteria in communal well water around Port Harcourt, Nigeria

A total of 108 raw water samples was collected from 36 wells at nine shanty settlements around Port Harcourt, Nigeria, over a period of 7 months. Samples were analysed for their bacteriological quality. Selected bacterial strains isolated from the samples were tested for their susceptibility to ten commonly used antibiotics. The organisms isolated include Pseudomonas spp., Klebsiella spp., Staphylococcus spp., Proteus spp., Enterococcus faecalis, Aeromonas spp., Escherichia coli, Chromobacterium spp., Flavobacterium spp., and Serratia spp. Out of 300 strains tested, 23 (6.9%) were susceptible to all the antibiotics, 277 (92.3%) were resistant to at least one antibiotic and 232 (77.3%) were resistant to two or more antibiotics. The epidemiological significance of these results is discussed.