Chloramphenicol Resistance in the Typhoid Bacillus

Abstract

dissemination of this strain in Britain the incident is a reminder of the need to restrict the use of drugs such as chloramphenicol to the serious diseases for which they are virtually specific.

The characterization of plasmids in the enterobacteria

“…Thus A, T-A, TP110 and TP102 are plasmids ofthe I: compatibility group, while TP1 14, although it supports multiplication of phage Ifl, is compatible with I1 plasmids and is the prototype of the '2 group . R factor 334 is an FlI plasmid, TP123 belongs to group H (Anderson & Smith, 1972b;Grindley et al 1972) and TP118 to group N. (Grindley et al 1973). …”

“…R factor TP123, isolated from S. typhi 1T4739 (Anderson & Smith, 1972b), transfers resistance to chloramphenicol, streptomycin-sulphonamides and tetracyclines. 1T4739 is representative of the strain responsible for a widespread outbreak of chloramphenicol-resistant typhoid fever, which started in Mexico early in 1972 and was still active in 1973. TP118 (Anderson & Threlfall, 1970) is an R factor identified in S. enteritidis strain E3538, belonging to phage type 8.…”

“…TP123 belongs to the H group (Anderson & Smith, 1972b;Grindley et al 1972Grindley et al , 1973, and TP118 to the N group (Grindley et al , 1973.…”

Typhoid fever imported from Mexico to Switzerland. Studies on R factor mediated chloramphenicol resistance

“…Weekly Epidemiological Record, 1972). The recent account by Anderson & Smith (1972) of typhoid infection in two British visitors to Mexico, and the occurrence of a similar case at our hospital in a patient returning from Mexico City, prompted us to investigate the resistance pattern of the strain of S. typhi isolated from this case and to document its identity with the Mexican strain.…”

Does chloramphenicol remain the drug of choice for typhoid?

“…However, the appearance of chloramphenicol-resistant Salmonella typhi in Mexico (Anonymous, 1972;Anderson & Smith, 1972), India (Paniker & Vimala, 1972) and Vietnam (Butler et al 1973) gave rise to fears that strains resistant to chloramphenicol were becoming extensively distributed, thus jeopardising the supremacy of this antibiotic (Anonymous, 1973).…”