Nalidixic acid susceptibility test to screen ciprofloxacin resistance in Salmonella typhi.

Abstract

Our study shows that resistance to nalidixic acid is associated with a high MIC to ciprofloxacin in S. typhi. These strains would have been interpreted as ciprofloxacin sensitive by routine antimicrobial susceptibility testing by disc diffusion method. Hence screening of S. typhi isolates by the nalidixic acid susceptibility test may be incorporated in a clinical bacteriology laboratory to alert the treating physicians of the possibility of the failure to ciprofloxacin therapy in patients with enteric fever.