Örebro Studies in Medicine 207 I
ÖREBRO 2020 2020AN
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anna fagerström (née Önnberg) was born in Karlstad in 1980, and grew up in Sysslebäck, Sweden. She graduated as a biomedical scientist in 2009 and received her MSc in Biomedical laboratory science in 2010, at Örebro University. She first started working with ESBL-producing E. coli during her degree project and continued with this research topic during her doctoral studies at the Department of Labora-tory Medicine, Clinical Microbiology, Örebro University Hospital.
Escherichia coli is a commensal inhabitant in the gastro-intestinal tract of
humans and animals, but is also one of the most important human pathogens. During the past decades, the prevalence of antibiotic resistant E. coli has increased worldwide. Extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) are enzymes causing resistance to β-lactam antibiotics, which is the most widely used class of antibiotics. The genes encoding ESBL are usually carried on conjugative plasmids, which can be transferred between different bacterial lineages and different species. These plasmids frequently also carry resistance genes to additional antibiotic classes, and ESBL-producing E. coli are therefore often multidrug-resistant. This thesis describes the long-term epidemiology of ESBL-producing E. coli in Örebro County, during a time-period shortly after its first emergence. In addition, potential spread of ESBL-producing E. coli between humans and the aquatic environment in Örebro City was investigated.
issn 1652-4063 isbn 978-91-7529-324-0
