An outbreak of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella enteritidis in Liberia, West Africa

Abstract

Between October 1980 and August 1982, 100 patients in the pediatric population at Curran Lutheran Hospital, Zorzor, Liberia were identified as having multiple drug-resistant Salmonella enteritidis serotype enteritidis. The illness usually presented as an enteric fever but also as meningitis, gastroenteritis, empyema, subcutaneous abscesses, chronic otitis media, or a combination of these conditions. Predisposing factors were young age and debilitation from malnutrition or measles. The mortality of infected patients was 27.8%. The organism was originally misidentified as a Citrobacter species because of a delayed reaction on lysine decarboxylase medium. Incubation of the medium for five days resulted in a positive reaction that identified the organism as a Salmonella species. The isolates were resistant to multiple antibiotics. Genes mediating resistance were located on a 120-megadalton conjugative plasmid. A cryptic nonconjugative 40-megadalton plasmid was also present in several isolates.