Multiresistant Salmonella ohio infections at the University Hospital of the West Indies.

During 1982-83 there was a substantial increase in the number of S. ohio infections at the University Hospital of the West Indies, which coincided with the appearance of strains resistant to chloramphenicol, cotrimoxazole, ampicillin, neomycin and carbenicillin. Multiresistant strains of S. ohio accounted for 19.3% of all salmonella isolates during this period and all of 40 strains tested were able to transfer resistance determinants to E. coli K12 J 53-2. S. ohio was cultured from stool (60), blood (5), wounds and abscesses (4) and postmortem material (2). Eighty-six per cent of S. ohio infections occurred in children of 3 years old or less. There was a high incidence of gastroenteritis in malnourished children, a 14% incidence of localizing infections and a 7% incidence of septicaemia. Two infants with severe gastroenteritis and bronchopneumonia died. There were a number of unusual infections including two cases of septicaemia in children receiving chloramphenicol for Haemophilus influenzae meningitis, a scrotal abscess secondary to extravasation of urine and infected scabies in a child with marasmic kwashiorkor.