Antimicrobial Susceptibility Pattern and Bacterial Isolates Profile in Septicaemia Suspected Patients Attending FMC. Yenagoa

Background: Infection of the blood stream by bacteria represents a considerable public health problem and it is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in hospitalised patients. The aim of this study was to appraise the prevalence of bacterial isolates from septicaemia suspected patients and their antimicrobial susceptibility pattern amongst patients attending the Federal Medical Centre {FMC), Yenagoa. Methods: Three hundred and thirty-five (335) blood samples were collected, cultured and processed following standard microbiological techniques as part of the routine clinical management of the patient with suspected septicaemia in the Medical Microbiology Laboratory of the Hospital. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was done on pure culture isolates employing disc-diffusion method for the commonly used antibiotics. The obtained data were analysed by using SPSS version 20 and the results were presented in tabular and graphical forms. Results: Out of 335 blood cultured, 138(41.19%) were culture positive. 122(88.41%) were aerobic bacterial while 16(11.59%) were anaerobes. Of the aerobes, the gram negative and gram-positive bacteria constituted 67(54.90%) and 55(45.10%) of the culture isolates; respectively. The predominant aerobic bacteria isolated from the cultured blood were Coagulase negative staphylococci27(22.00%), followed by S. aureus 17(14.20%) and Klebsiellapneumoniae16 (13.05%), Serretia marcescens 15(12.35%) Acinetobacter spp 13(10.75%), E.coliand Enterococcus spp., 9 (7.19%) each, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella typhi 7 (5.76%) each, and Bacillus subtilis 2(1.57%). Among the anaerobes, the most frequently isolated were Bacteroides fragilis 8(50.00%), Clostridiumperfringens4(25.00%), Peptostreptococcus spp. 2(12.50%), and Fusobacterium spp. 2(12.50%). All the isolates showed high rates of resistance to most antibiotics tested. Conclusions: In the current study most of the pathogens isolated from blood culture presented high rate of resistance to most commonly antibiotics used to treat bacterial infections thus limiting therapeutic options. Therefore, routine bacteriological profile examination along with their antibiotic resistance patterns must be an essential component in the management of sepsis. A knowledge of these patterns is essential when local polices on the use of antibiotics are being formulated.