This study aimed to investigate the immunological and bacterial profiles in pregnant women of Bafang-Cameroon.

Stool and midstream urine were cultured using specific culture media. The disk diffusion method was used for the antimicrobial susceptibility test. T-cell lymphocyte counts (CD3, CD4 and CD8), white blood cell counts, sensitive C-reactive protein, and interleukin-6, were measured by flow cytometry, optical detection, and the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay solid phase direct sandwich method.

Out of 700 participants, 71.43% were pregnant, and 28.57% were non-pregnant women. The mean age was 29.40 ± 8.27 and 27.41 ± 6.55 years in non-pregnant and pregnant women, respectively. CD4 T-cells were not significantly lower in pregnant women compared with non-pregnant women. There were 43.65% and 56.35% bacteria isolates obtained from urine and stool samples, respectively. Bacteria were mostly isolated in patients with a CD4 T-cell count between 461 and 806 cells/μL. Isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterobacter aerogenes showed 100% resistance in non-pregnant women, however all isolated bacteria were shown to be multidrug resistant in pregnant women. Salmonella sp. (24.3%) and Escherichia coli (21.51%) showed an increase in multidrug resistant phenotypes in pregnant women.

This study demonstrated that routine bacteriological analysis during pregnancy is necessary for their follow-up care.

This study aimed to identify virulent and antimicrobial resistant genes in fecal E. coli in Mbouda, Cameroon.

A total of 599 fecal samples were collected from patients with enteric infections who were ≥ 20 years old. E. coli was isolated on the MacConkey agar and virulent genes were detected by multiplex/simplex PCR. Isolates in which ≥ 1 virulent gene was detected were subjected to antibiotic susceptibility testing. The resulting resistant isolates were subjected to PCR, followed by sequencing for resistant genes detection.

There were 119 enterovirulent E. coli identified, amongst which 47.05% were atypical enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC), 36.97% enterotoxigenic E. coli, 10.08% Shiga toxin producing E. coli (STEC) and 5.88% were enteroinvasive E. coli (EIEC). The occurrence of the eae gene (47.06%) was higher compared with CVD432 (33.61%), aaic (13.45%), stx2 (10.08%) and stx1 (0.84%). High resistance rates were noted for ampicillin (94.64% EPEC, 91.67% STEC, 59.09% EAEC, and 57.14% EIEC) and sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim (100% EPEC and 83.33% STEC, 81.82% EAEC and 71.43% EIEC). sul2 (71.43%), tetB (64.71%), tetA (59.94%) and blaTEM (52.10%) were detected. A double mutation (S83L; D87N) was seen in gyrA and a single mutation (S80I) was observed in parC.

These findings suggested that measures should be taken to reduce the harm of E. coli to public health.