Bacteriological profile of blood culture isolates from suspected septicemia in paediatric age group

Abstract

Microorganisms cause septicaemia, systemic disease due to their multiplication and toxins in the blood. These bloodstream infections constitutes a significant public health problems and are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the hospitalised patients and require rapid antimicrobial treatment. Most children die of septicaemia infections as a result of inappropriate antimicrobial therapy. Aim: 1. To know the occurrence of blood stream infections. 2. To isolate and identify the bacterial agent from blood sample. 3. To determine the antibiotic susceptibility pattern of the isolates. Materials and Methods: A total number of 300 paediatric blood culture samples were processed and identified in the Department of Microbiology from December 2014 to July 2016 in tertiary care centre according to CLSI guidelines. Drug resistant strains in primary screening were further processed for ESBL and MRSA by standard guidelines Results: Out of 300 patients, 137(46%) developed septicaemia with the positive blood culture. Of the 137 positive culture, 87(63.5%) were gram negative bacilli, 50(36.4%) were gram positive cocci. Most common isolates were Klebsiella pneumoniae (51.4%) among gram negative isolates and Staphylococcus aureus (50%) among gram positive isolates. Maximum isolated strains showed high resistance towards penicillin, cephalosporins and fluoroquinolone, ESBL producers among the Klebsiella and E. coli isolates were 67.7% while 64% were MRSA among Gram positive cocci. Conclusion: The present study provides much needed information on the prevalence of bacterial pathogens in blood stream infections which highlights the need for periodic surveillance of etiologic agents, their antibacterial susceptibility pattern, also changing trends in the distribution of isolates to prevent further emergence and spread of resistant pathogens.