Background:

Infections with Campylobacter species, particularly Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli, are recognised as one of the most common causes of bacterial diarrhoea in humans worldwide.

Objective:

To determine the antimicrobial resistance rates of thermophilic Campylobacter strains isolated from diarrhoeal patients in Crete, Greece.

Methods:

A total of 621 Campylobacter isolates from stool specimens of patients suffering from acute diarrhoeal infections during January 1992 and November 2003 were included. Identification was done according to standard microbiological methods. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by the disk diffusion method using Muller–Hinton agar supplemented with 5% sheep blood; the plates were incubated at 37°C for 24 h in a microaerophilic atmosphere. The following antibiotics were tested: erythromycin, tetracycline, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, gentamicin, chloramphenicol, and ciprofloxacin.

Results:

Six hundred and twenty-one strains of Campylobacter were studied. Of them, 493 (79.4%) were C. jejuni and 128 (20.6%) C. coli. Most isolates (71.8%) were resistant to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. Resistance rates observed to other antibiotics were as follows: 43.6% to tetracycline, 7.4% to chloramphenicol, and 2.5% to gentamicin. High percentages of resistance to ciprofloxacin (39.6%) were found, while resistance to erythromycin was observed in 16.7% of the isolates.

Conclusion:

The increased rates of Campylobacter resistance in our region emphasise the need for a more restrictive policy on the use of antibiotics in both humans and farm animals.