Rabia Shams, Nusrat Khan, Shugfta Hussain.
Bacteriology & anti-microbial susceptibility of neonetal septicemia in NICU, PIMS, Islamabad - a tertiary care hospital of Pakistan.
APIMS Jan ;6(4):191-5.

Objective The objectives and aims of this study are to identify the organisms causing neonatal septicemia and their antimicrobial susceptibility at Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad; in order to develop empirical guidelines for antibiotics and also to find out the most common prevalent organism in our study. Study design: Cross Sectional Longitudinal study Place and Duration of Study: The study period spreads from January, 2005 to June, 2005 at NICU, PIMS, Islamabad. Patients and Methods: The blood cultures of 300 neonates (aging 0 to 28 days) with clinical signs and symptoms of sepsis were collected at the time of admission at NICU, PIMS, Islamabad. The blood cultures were taken before any antibiotic therapy. Blood culture reports were analyzed for bacterial isolate and their antibiotic sensitivity by standard methods. Results: Among three hundred cases; the male and female ratio was 2:1. The gestational age was less than 36 weeks in 74 (24%). Out these 300 cases 120 cases (40%) had positive blood cultures. Out of these, 120 positive blood cultures Enterobactor was found to be the commonest (90.8% n=109) organism, Staphylococcus aureus was 4.2% (n=5), Searretia was 3.4% (n=4). Resistance to Cefotaxime, Ceftazidime Ceftrixone, Cefiprome and Amikacin was 37% to 60% and Ciprofloxacin resistance was 10%, while resistance to Imipenem was 3% to 8% in this study. Conclusion: Eighty percent of blood cultures were found positive for enterobacter in hospital born babies while staph aureus was predominantly positive in home delivered babies. There was 100% resistance for first line antibiotics and best sensitivity shown by newer drugs like imepenum. Therefore, continuous microbiological surveillance of NICUs is of utmost importance to be abreast with changing pattern of pathogens and their susceptibility.

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