Prevalence of Bacteria in Drinking Water in Karachi andtheir Antimicrobial Susceptibility
Keywords:
Bacteria, drinking water, antibiotic resistance, antibiotic susceptibilityAbstract
Introduction:
In Pakistan, the bacteriological quality of drinking water is not closely monitored and prevalence of waterborne diseases due to the contamination of drinking water is among the most common problems facedi n urban and rural areas of Pakistan. The bacteria inhabiting these water sources carry genes which render them resistant to many antimicrobials. These genes can be transmitted to other non-resistant bacteria as well making the diseases caused by them hard to treat.
Methodology and Results:
We collected 100 drinking water collected from four water sources, namely boring water, tap water, filtered water and boiled water, randomly collected from different parts of Karachi by a sterile method. They were tested to determine the bacterial isolates present in them using the analytical profile indexing (API). The antimicrobial susceptibility profile of these bacteria was done using the Kirby Bauer disk diffusion method. It was estimated that Klebsiella is the most commonly found organism in the drinking water samples, followed by Pseudomonas and E.Coli, Staphylococcus aureus being the least common. The isolates were found to be most resistant to ampicillin (99%) and least resistant to amikacin (1%)while they were found to be most sensitive to amikacin (96%) and imipenem (96%).
Conclusion:
Better quality and standards of drinking water are necessary for healthy human life. Filtration and boiling of tap and boring water decreases the number of pathogens present in it making it better and healthier for human consumption.
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