It is easy (although illegal) to purchase antimicrobials in Kenya without prescriptions or with prescriptions not backed selleck by laboratory investigations [6]. We hypothesize that such practices may directly or indirectly lead to emergence of highly resistant strains. A high prevalence of MDR strains from urine and all specimens from hospitalized patients may reflects a corresponding heavy

use of antimicrobials among this category of patients as reported in past studies [7, 8]. Majority of resistances encountered in hospital isolates were also encountered in community settings probably because patients are often discharged from hospitals as soon as their conditions improve, even before they complete their treatment regiments (our unpublished observations). It is therefore possible that hospital strains find their way into community settings and vis versa. However, we do not rule out the possibility that

some MDR phenotypes may arise in community settings. Compound C The high prevalence of class 1 integrons may partially be due to their association with the Tn21 that contain a complete set of transposition genes. Past studies show that dfrA7 and dfrA1 cassettes associated with Tn21-borne integrons are the most prevalent dfrA-subtypes in Central, North and Western Africa [9–12]. In this study however, the prevalence of dfrA7 was much lower than that of dfrA1, dfrA12 and dfA17 in that order. The class 2 integron dfrA1/sat2/aadA1 array reported in this study

is globally distributed [13]. Our results may therefore reflect regional differences or similarities in distribution of integron cassette arrays. Such differences may arise from unique antimicrobial-use patterns in different countries. This study also demonstrates an apparent correlation between carriage of dfrA17 and resistance to multiple β-lactams as has been reported in Tunisia [12, 14] and from Northern Kenya among isolates from dog, cat and human specimens [5]. The next reasons behind these correlations are yet to be elucidated. Carriage of different dfrA sub-types in our isolates and carriage of multiple integron-associated sul genes (sul1 and sul3) in the same isolate Apoptosis inhibitor possibly correlates to heavy usage of sulfonamides and trimethoprim in Kenya for treatment of different infections and as prophylaxis against opportunistic infections among people with HIV/AIDS [15–17]. Some integrons, especially those lacking the 3’-CS and those containing a sul3 at the 3’-end, were linked to the IS26 possibly because this element mediates deletion of 3’-CS in class 1 integrons 3’- terminal [18, 19]. Similar results have been published in Australia, Spain and Nigeria [11, 12, 18, 19]. Our data further suggest that strains carrying IS26-associated integrons are highly MDR probably because the IS26 is also linked to other non-integron genes such as β-lactamases. Most β-lactamases, particularly those encoding CTX-M-14 and −15 and CMY-2, were physically linked to ISEcp1.