Abstract:
Food borne diseases is one of the public health challenges throughout the world. Among
food borne diseases Salmonella and Shigella are leading causes of food borne diseases.
Moreover, the changing pattern of antimicrobial susceptibility of bacterial entric-pathogen
(Salmonella and Shigella) is another growing problem. Therefore, this study was aimed to
determine the prevalence, antimicrobial susceptibility pattern and associated risk factors
of Salmonella and Shigella among food handlers in street food vendors in Dire Dawa
town from June to July, 2017. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 218 randomly
selected asymptomatic food handlers working in in street food venders in Dire Dawa
town, Eastern, Ethiopia. Data was collected using face to face interview with pretested
questionnaire. Stool specimens were collected, cultured and biochemical and
antimicrobial susceptibility testing was done using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion
method. Data was analaysed using Statistical Packaging for Social Science (SPSS)
version 16 for the analysis. The overall prevalence of enteric pathogen (Salmonella and
Shigella) was 8.7 % which accounts 5.8 % Salmonella and 2.8% Shigella. Hand washing
with water alone after use of toilet (AOR = 4.1, 95% CI (1.3, 12.6), not trimming finger
nail (AOR = 3.2, 95% CI (1.04, 10.0) were statistically associated with the occurrence of
enteric pathogen. Salmonella and Shigella isolates were sensitive against Ciprofloxacin,
Ceftraxon, Gentamycin, Chloraphenicol, and Naldic acid and resistance against
Amoxacillin, Ampicillin and Tertracyclin. Salmonella 64.8% and Shigella 31.6% were
multidrug resistant. High prevalence of enteropathogens among the study participants,
revealed poor personal hygiene like poor practice of hand washing and not trimming
finger nail. Therefore, Thoroughly and proper hand washing after visting the toilet,
keeping finger nails short reduce microbial contamination of food. Health Bureau need to
conduct awareness raising activities like training for all food handlers and employers.
