The trend of drug resistance in toxin and non-toxin producing Shigella Spp. isolated from stool of children with diarrhea

Diarrhea is recognized as one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality in developing countries. Gastrointestinal diseases can lead to death of many children of less than 5 years of age. The aim of this study was to evaluate the drug resistance pattern in Shigella toxin and non-toxin producing strains in children. In this descriptive analytic study a total of 80 Shigella strains، 60 strains isolated from stool samples of children with diarrhea from Loghman، Emam and Tebi Koodakan Centre Hospitals، and 20 national collection strains isolated and reserved during the last years. The isolates were evaluated for cytotoxin production by using cell culture technique (Hela cell). Our study included 54 strains of S. flexneri، 14 strains of S. sonnei، 10 strains of S. boydii and 2 strains of S. dysenteriae. Data were analyazed by means of chi-square and Fisher''s exact test. Of 80 strains 9 (11. 25%) showed cytotoxic effect. Chi-square test showed no significant difference between the isolated and national collection strains (P≥0. 05). There was no correlation between the cytotoxic activity and clinical symptoms such as abdominal pain، nausea، and frequency of passing stools / day، but other symptoms like fever and presence of blood in the stool had correlation with cytotoxin production. The results of this study showed that there was no significant difference in the antimicrobial resistance pattern between toxin and non-toxin producing Shigella strains isolated from the clinical samples and the standard national collection.