Assessment of the efficacies, potencies and bacteriological qualities of some of the antibiotics sold in Calabar, Nigeria

摘要

In this study, an assessment of the efficacies, potencies and qualities of 11 brands of 5 different antibiotics including?3 brands of?ampiclox and?2 brands each ofciprofolxacin, gentamicin, rifampicin and tetracylcine sold in Calabar, South-South region of Nigeria was carried out?using the agar diffusion technique (sensitivity testing).?The efficacies, potencies and qualities of these antibiotics were tested against some clinical isolates which include?Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus?andStreptococcus pyogenes?in vitro. The overall mean zones of inhibition for the test organisms ranged from 33.0 – 34.7 mm, with 33 mm for?E. coli, 20.9 mm for?K. pneumoniae,?34.7 mm for?P. aeruginosa,?31.4 mm for?S.?aureus?and 17.6 mm for S.?pyogenes.?The result showed that 3 (60%) of the antibiotics (alaclox, ciprofloxacin and rifampicin) tested showed lower potency against the test organisms?compared with the standard controls.?Alaclox produced significantly (P 0.05) between the observed zones of inhibition and standard controls of the brands of gentamicin (richem) and tetracycline.?These overall and mean potencies of the test antibiotics showed differences in their efficacies, potencies and qualities.?This confirmed that some brands of ampiclox, ciprofloxacin and rifampicin antibiotics sold in Nigeria do not contain the acclaimed quantity of active ingredients to exert bacteriocidal or bacteriostatic effect on common pathogens.