Zakaria El Astal.
Bacterial pathogens and their Antimicrobial Susceptibility in Gaza Strip, Palestine.
Pak J Med Sci Jan ;20(4):365-70.

Objective: To assess common clinically significant isolates and determine their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns. Design: A retrospective study for bacterial isolates from clinical sources including urine, pus, blood and cerebrospinal fluid. Bacterial susceptibility testing was done by the standardized disk agar diffusion technique. Setting: The study has utilized microbiology laboratory records in the governmental hospitals of Gaza Strip, Palestine (11 hospitals with 1376 beds) during four different months (January, April, July and October, 2003). Subjects: A total of 2844 isolates (924 Gram positive and 1920 Gram negative) were scrutinized. Results: The resistance of Staphylococcus aureus was 73.2% to amoxycillin and 1.8% to vancomycin. For Streptococcus pneumoniae, 40.4% was resistance to penicillin and 7.4% to erythromycin. Conclusions: The increasing resistance of organisms indicates that periodic monitoring and possibly modification of empirical therapy are required.

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