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Background: Salmonella and Shigella are major enteric pathogens that cause diarrhea in children worldwide. They are pathogenic microbes that cause significant diarrheal morbidity and mortality in under five children in resource limited countries. Thus, this systemic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate the prevalence of Salmonella and Shigella species and their multidrug resistance patterns in pediatric populations in Ethiopia., Methods: The articles were searched extensively in the electronic databases and grey literature using entry terms or phrases. Studies meeting the eligibility criteria were extracted in MS Excel and exported for statistical analysis into STATA version 14 software. The overall pooled prevalence of Salmonella and Shigella species was computed using a random-effects model. Heterogeneity was assessed using the Cochrane Q test and I 2 statistics with corresponding p-values. Publication bias was assessed using a funnel plot and Egger's test. In addition, sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the impact of individual studies on the pooled effect size., Result: Of a total of 742 identified studies, 89 studies were eligible for full-text analysis. Of 89 studies, 21 were included for meta-analysis involving 5318 study participants. These eligible studies reported a total of 593 bacterial isolates. The overall pooled prevalence of Salmonella and Shigella among pediatrics in Ethiopia was 10.70% (95% CI: 8.96-12.45), with substantial heterogeneity (I 2  = 82.1%, p < 0.001) across the studies. The pooled prevalence of Salmonella and Shigella individually among pediatrics in Ethiopia was 15.43% (95% CI: 10.42-20.72) and 15.83% (95% CI: 11.40-20.40), respectively. Moreover, the overall prevalence of multidrug resistance in Salmonella and Shigella isolates was 81.03% (95% CI: 77.39-84.67) with substantial heterogeneity of I 2 of 95%, p < 0.0001 between the pooled prevalence of the two species., Conclusion: The pooled prevalence of Salmonella and Shigella and their multidrug resistance were alarmingly high in pediatric. The initial empirical treatment of pediatrics patients remains challenging and results high prevalence of antimicrobial resistance. Thus, appropriate infection prevention and control strategies should be implemented and treatment should be directed based on antimicrobial stewardship protocols., Competing Interests: Declaration. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Not applicable. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

Background: The emergence and spread of multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria have become a public health problem in recent years. For the last many years, carbapenem antibiotics have been used successfully to treat infections caused by MDR Enterobacteriaceae . However, recently, Enterobacteriaceae producing carbapenemases have emerged, which confer broad resistance to most β -lactam antibiotics including carbapenems. Therefore, this study is aimed at determining the magnitude of MDR and carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) isolated from various clinical specimens in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia., Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from January to April 2018. A total of 312 Enterobacteriaceae isolates were identified from various clinical specimens. The Phoenix automated system (BD Phoenix100) was used for bacterial identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Potential carbapenemase producers were confirmed by the modified carbapenem inactivation test, and KPC, MBL, and OXA-48 were phenotypically characterized by the disk diffusion method. The data obtained were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20 software. Descriptive statistics, chi square, bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed. P value ≤ 0.05 with corresponding 95% confidence interval was considered for statistical significance., Results: A total of 312 Enterobacteriaceae were recovered. Of these isolates, 68.6% were MDR and 2.6% were CPE with different classes including OXA-48 1.6% (5/312), MBL 0.6% (2/312), and KPC and OXA-48 0.3% (1/312). The predominant bacterial isolates were E. coli 72.4% (226/312) followed by K. pneumoniae 13.8% (43/312). The antibiotic resistance rates of CPE isolates were significantly higher than other MDRE including ampicillin (100% versus 77.6%), cefoxitin (75% versus 20.6%), and piperacillin/tazobactam (50% versus 13.1%)., Conclusion: In this study, a relatively higher prevalence of MDR was observed, and the highest resistance was recorded against ampicillin, amoxicillin with clavulanic acid, and sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim. Detection of CPE is important for implementing appropriate antimicrobial therapy and in controlling the spread of the infection. Furthermore, continuous screening and investigations, including genotypic characterization of CPE, are required for the prevention and control of the spread of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest in this research work., (Copyright © 2021 Saba Gebremichael Tekele et al.)