HIGH PREVALENCE OF ANTIBIOTIC IN ORAL BACTERIA IN BOLIVIAN QUECHUAS ANTIMICROBIAL DRUG RESISTANCE

Abstract

Antibiotics select for resistant populations of bacteria, and therefore bacterial resistance is expected to be high in settings with high antibiotic exposure. In this study we compared the presence of the tetracycline resistance gene tet(M) in oral bacteria from rural subjects and urban Quéchua outpatients. A total of 85 Sucre Hospital outpatients and 87 rural villagers were included in the study. Oral swabs were taken, DNA extracted, and the tetracycline resistance gene tet(M), common in oral bacteria, was amplified. Resistance was 5.5 times more likely to be found in the urban outpatients (97%) than in rural subjects (84%; p=0.0095). In the rural community, women were 5.3 times more likely to have oral tet(M) (91%) than men (65%).

The results confirm that the incidence of bacterial antibiotic resistance genes is higher in humans in high exposure settings, but even subjects with low exposure have a relatively high prevalence of antibiotic resistance, suggesting that the resilience of resistance genes in communities, in the absent of the selective pressure of the antibiotic, might jeopardize efforts to reduce antibiotic resistance by reducing antibiotic use.