RESEARCH ARTICLE Antimicrobial co-resistanc

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleBackground Gram-negative bacilli (GNB) are a significant cause of in-fection in community and nosocomial settings [1]. Besides inherent and chromosomally mediated mechanisms of re-sistance, the development of multidrug resistance in GNB is further facilitated by the acquisition of plasmids, integrons and transposons carrying resistance genes, which is typically a consequence of selective antimicrobial pres-sure exerted by prolonged antibiotic use [2]. It is also becoming increasingly common to find multiple re-sistance genes that are linked together, thus antibiotics from unrelated classes may contribute to the selective pressures and maintain the expression of these multidrug resistant genes [3,4]