Bacterial Isolates From Pediatric Blood Culture and Their Response to Antimicrobial Agents

Abstract

Background
 The blood stream can be invaded by many bacteria in the course of many infections resulting in bacteremia or septicemia.
 Objectives
 The aim of this study was to identify the frequency and the types of bacteria isolated form pediatric blood cultures and identify their susceptibility to antimicrobial agents.
 Patients and Methods
 A retrospective study on the laboratory reports of blood cultures from pediatric patients attended Sulaimani Pediatric Teaching Hospital during 18 months period.
 Results
 From 6024 processed blood cultures, 512 cultures yielded positive for growth of bacteria (8.4%). Staphylococcus aureus was the commonest microorganism isolated from both Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and other hospital units. This was followed by Enterobacter spp. and Escherichia coli in NICU, while in other hospital units Staphylococcus aureus was followed by E. coli and Enterobacter spp.. Salmonella Typhi was isolated from 5.8% of blood cultures. The isolates mostly were resistant to many antimicrobial drugs. Certain antimicrobial agents showed to be more effective such as vancomycin, amikacin and cefaclor while more than 80% of the isolates were resistant to other agents such as ampicillin, oxacillin, carbincillin and ceftriaxone.
 Conclusion
 Staphylococcus aureus was the commonest bacteria isolated from blood cultures followed by Gram negative Enterobacteriaceae. The isolated bacteria were resistant to many antimicrobial agents while vancomycin andamikacin were found to be more effective than other agents.