PREVALENCE AND ANTIBIOTIC SUSCEPTIBILITY PATTERN OF ENTEROCOCCUS SP. ISOLATED FROM A NIGERIAN HOSPITAL
Ayeni FA1, 3*, Bello AE1, Olley M 2
1-Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology, Collage of Pharmacy, Igbinedion University Okada
2-Medical Microbiology Unit, Igbinedion University Teaching Hospital Okada
3-Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ibadan, Ibadan
May-June 2015; Vol. 7 (issue 1): 24-31
ABSTRACT
Enterococci are bacteria that are increasingly noted for their occurrence in infections in various sites in the body. There is currently a treatment challenge for enterococci infections due to antibiotic resistant problem observed in the bacteria thereby warranting surveillance study in different locales of the world. The purpose of this study therefore is to study prevalence of enterococci in infections in a Nigerian hospital over a 2 months period and determine its resistance pattern. Eighty-six samples comprising of 12 Endocervical Swab (ECS), 18 High Vaginal Swab (HVS), 43 Urine Samples, 2 Wound Swabs, 7 Sputum and 4 Ear Swabs were obtained from samples of patients who were referred to Medical Microbiology Unit of Igbinedion University Hospital between April and May, 2010. The isolates were identified by biochemical methods, antibiotic susceptibility of isolates to ciprofloxacin, doxycycline, ampicillin, nitrofurantoin and chloramphenicol were determined by disk diffusion test according to NCCLS and MIC tests for ciprofloxacin, ampicillin and chloramphenicol were carried out for selected resistant strains by macro-dilution method. Six Enterococcus sp. were identified only from urine, endocervical and vaginal samples with the highest occurrence observed in urine samples (9.3%). The isolated strains were highly resistant to doxycycline (66.7 %) but susceptible to nitrofurantoin. The MIC result reveals that selected strains were also resistant to ciprofloxacin and chloraphenicol. The result from this study indicates that there is low occurrence of enterococci as causative agent of infections in the studied environment. This is in contrast to reports from other part of the world. It also indicates that the best antibiotic for treatment of enterococci infection is nitrofurantoin while doxycycline is not effective for treatment of enterococci infections in the studied environment.
KEYWORDS- Enterococci, Antibiotics, Resistance, Infections