Characterization and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Profiles of Bacteria Isolated from Various Specimens among Mary Begg Health Facilities

Abstract

Background: The ever-increasing magnitude of antimicrobial resistance encountered in human pathogens has led to limited treatment options for bacterial infections, consequently reducing antimicrobial efficacy while increasing treatment costs, morbidity, and mortality. In clinical setup, laboratory-based in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility testing is the cornerstone for guiding therapy and enables the monitoring of antimicrobial resistance trends. Aim: To characterize the distribution of bacteria isolated from various specimens and their antibiotic susceptibility profiles in Mary Begg Health facilities. Material & Methods: This was a retrospective, cross-sectional, quantitative, descriptive study that involved the review of 569 laboratory files from three Mary Begg Health facilities from the period of January 2019 to June 2020. A systematic random sampling method was used and SPSS version 21.0 was used for data analysis. Results: The distribution of bacteria based on Gram stain reaction found that most bacteria that were isolated were Gram negative bacilli, 79.5% (171/215). The most common bacterium isolated was Escherichia coli, 46.5% (100/215) followed by Staphylococcus aureus, 12.1% (26/215) and Klebsiella pneumoniae, 17 7.9% (17/215). The study found that E. coli was highly resistant to amoxicillin (95.0%), Ampicillin (90.0%) and Cotrimoxazole (77.0%), respectively. In contrast, E. coli was highly sensitive to Amikacin (96.0%), Ertapenem (91.0%) and Ceftriaxone (80.0%) S. aureus species isolated were sensitive to Gentamicin (65.4%) and Clindamycin (46.2%) but highly resistant to Cotrimoxazole (80.8%). Conclusion: The most frequent isolates were Escherichia coli followed by Staphylococcus aureus and majority of them were from urine specimens. Key words: Antimicrobial, Resistant, Antimicrobial Resistance, Antimicrobial susceptibility testing, Mary Begg Health services.