Disk Diffusion Method Of Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing With Erythromycin On Corynebacterium Diphtheriae

Abstract

Corynebacterium diphtheriae is the bacterium that causes diphtheria. The high mortality of diphtheria cases is mainly due to delays in diagnosis and therapy. One of the measures to prevent diphtheria is by giving prophylaxis to cases, contacts and carriers. The recommended antibiotics of choice are penicillin and erythromycin. Bacterial susceptibility tests to antibiotics need to be carried out continuously to determine the development of bacterial resistance. Based on this, it is felt that the diffusion disk method antibiotic sensitivity test needs to be developed to support culture examination and antibiotic sensitivity testing for diphtheria at BBLKM Surabaya. This method is used as an alternative to the standard dilution method and is expected to have good suitability. The purpose of the study was to determine the results of the diffusion disk method sensitivity test with erythromycin antibiotics against Corynebacterium diphtheriae bacteria that are still sensitive or resistant. This study is an observational descriptive study conducted on 33 positive isolates of Corynebacterium diphtheriae in 2023 at BBLKM Surabaya. The research was conducted in the clinical microbiology laboratory of BBLKM Surabaya in May 2024. The results showed sensitive results with a diameter of more than 24 mm in all isolates tested with details of the percentage of samples with an inhibition zone of 25 mm as much as 6%, samples with an inhibition zone of 36 mm as much as 3%, samples with an inhibition zone of 37 mm as much as 19%, samples with an inhibition zone of 25 mm as much as 6%.