Background: We monitored the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance and the pattern of multiple drug resistance in Escherichia coli isolated from healthy people in the community.

Methods: We performed antimicrobial susceptibility testing on 491 isolates of E. coli from 692 healthy people in Incheon from February to July in 2006. The results were interpreted according to the CLSI guidelines.

Results: The highest rate of resistance was observed against tetracycline (46.6%), ampicillin (41.1%), ticarcillin (37.9%), streptomycin (31.0%), and nalidixic acid (23.6%). Twenty six percent of isolates were observed to be resistant to five or more of the antimicrobials tested.

Conclusion: In order to maintain a low level of antimicrobial use and resistance, the surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in the community would be very important, as it provides epidemical data to set up and control antibiotic guidelines and serves as an early warning for resistance in pathogenic bacteria. (Korean J Clin Microbiol 2007;10:32-36)