PREVALENCE AND ANTIMICROBIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY OF BACTERIAL PATHOGENS IN AN INDIAN RURAL TEACHING HOSPITAL
Infection is one of the major concern of hospitalized patients leading to morbidity, mortality, prolongs hospital stay, adds to the hospital cost and also blocks other needing patients to get admitted in the ward. Emergent of pathogens and rapid growth of multi-drug resistance demands periodic review of isolation patterns and its sensitivity. The present study was aimed to study the pathogens in the multi-specialty tertiary care teaching hospital and to assess its sensitivity pattern. The study was carried out in a 1400 bedded multi-specialty tertiary care teaching hospital attached to Annamalai University. Clinical specimens were collected from the patient and cultured in the appropriate media. Isolated colonies were subjected to gram staining technique and biochemical tests for identification. Antibiotic sensitivity tests were carried out on isolated and identified colonies using commercially prepared antibiotic sensitivity disc using Kirby-Bauer method. Totally 336 patients with infection were included in the study. Study results showed the following (a) Pathogens are more prevalent in male than in female, (b) Of all pathogens, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were more prevalent whereas, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella were moderately prevalent and Proteus mirabilis were least prevalent, (c) Of all antibiotics, Amikacin was sensitive to all pathogens in the study with low resistance profile