{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,1]],"date-time":"2026-04-01T05:50:21Z","timestamp":1775022621364,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,23]],"date-time":"2021-07-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1626998400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Antibiotics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Escherichia coli represents one of the most common causes of community-onset and nosocomial infections. Strains carrying extended spectrum \u03b2-lactamases (ESBL) are a serious public health problem. In Central America we have not found studies reporting the molecular epidemiology of E. coli strains implicated in local infections, so we conducted this study to fill that gap. Materials and Methods: We report on an epidemiological study in two reference hospitals from central Panama, identifying the susceptibility profile, associated risk factors, and molecular typing of E. coli strains isolated between November 2018 and November 2019 using Pasteur\u2019s Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) scheme. Results: A total of 30 E. coli isolates with antimicrobial resistance were analyzed, 70% of which came from inpatients and 30% from outpatients (p &lt; 0.001). Two-thirds of the samples came from urine cultures. Forty-three percent of the strains were ESBL producers and 77% were resistant to ciprofloxacin. We identified 10 different sequence types (STs) with 30% of the ESBL strains identified as ST43, which corresponds to ST131 of the Achtman MLST scheme\u2014the E. coli pandemic clone. Thirty-eight percent of the E. coli strains with the ESBL phenotype carried CTX-M-15. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report confirming the presence of the pandemic E. coli clone ST43\/ST131 harboring CTX-M-15 in Central American inpatients and outpatients. This E. coli strain is an important antimicrobial-resistant organism of public health concern, with potential challenges to treat infections in Panama and, perhaps, the rest of Central America.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/antibiotics10080899","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,23]],"date-time":"2021-07-23T10:31:44Z","timestamp":1627036304000},"page":"899","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":15,"title":["Molecular Epidemiology of Escherichia coli Clinical Isolates from Central Panama"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"Virginia","family":"N\u00fa\u00f1ez-Samudio","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Ciencias M\u00e9dicas, Las Tablas 0701, Los Santos, Panama"},{"name":"Secci\u00f3n de Epidemiolog\u00eda, Departamento de Salud P\u00fablica, Regi\u00f3n de Salud de Herrera, Ministry of Health, Chitr\u00e9 0601, Herrera, Panama"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6322-5034","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maydelin","family":"Pecchio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Ciencias M\u00e9dicas, Las Tablas 0701, Los Santos, Panama"},{"name":"Unidad de Infectolog\u00eda, Hospital Dr. Gustavo Nelson Collado, Caja de Seguro Social, Chitr\u00e9 0601, Herrera, Panama"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5896-3171","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gumercindo","family":"Pimentel-Peralta","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Ciencias M\u00e9dicas, Las Tablas 0701, Los Santos, Panama"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yohana","family":"Quintero","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Ciencias M\u00e9dicas, Las Tablas 0701, Los Santos, Panama"},{"name":"Unidad de Infectolog\u00eda, Hospital Dr. Gustavo Nelson Collado, Caja de Seguro Social, Chitr\u00e9 0601, Herrera, Panama"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mellissa","family":"Herrera","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratorio Cl\u00ednico, Hospital Luis \u201cChicho\u201d F\u00e1brega, Regi\u00f3n de Salud de Veraguas, Ministry of Health, Santiago 0923, Veraguas, Panama"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6323-1170","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Iv\u00e1n","family":"Landires","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Ciencias M\u00e9dicas, Las Tablas 0701, Los Santos, Panama"},{"name":"Centro Regional Universitario de Azuero (CRUA), Universidad de Panam\u00e1, Chitr\u00e9 0601, Herrera, Panama"},{"name":"Hospital Joaqu\u00edn Pablo Franco Sayas, Regi\u00f3n de Salud de Los Santos, Ministry of Health, Las Tablas 0701, Los Santos, Panama"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"World Health Organization (2014). 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