Prevalence and drug susceptibility pattern of pseudomonas aeruginosa using test records from February to June 2020 at Clinical Microbiology Laboratory Makerere University.

Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa has become an important cause of gram negative infection especially in patients with compromised host defence mechanisms, causing infection in blood, lungs and other body parts. It is the 2nd most common cause of nosocomial pneumonia 17%. In our retrospective study aimed at determining the prevalence and drug susceptibility pattern of Pseudomonas aeruginosa using test records at Makerere University Microbiology laboratory, we targeted 151 samples for each specimen type using test records for the period February 2020 to June 2020. Our result showed that prevalence rate of P. aeruginosa was 4.9% of all the pathogens isolated from the various sample types. The drug susceptibility patterns indicated that out of the 32 isolates for Pseudomonas aeruginosa considered in the study, ten selected drugs were recorded for the drug susceptibility. The association between the selected drug types and the reported drug susceptibility indicated highest resistance to penicillins (PRL and TPZ) followed by cephalosporins (CAZ and FEP), then fluoroquinolones (CIP) ,aminoglycosides (CN and AK), carbapenems (IPM and MEM) and least resistant to new polymyxin E (CT). The reverse was true representation of sensitivity patterns. However critical analysis showed that there was still moderate sensitivity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to fourth generation cephalosporins like FEP, (68.75), followed by aminoglycosides like AK, (71.88), then polymoxine E, colistin (78.13) and MEM a carbapenem showed the highest sensitivity of (84.38). Data was analysed using Microsoft Epidata. The study showed that there is a raising threat of resistance across all classes of commonly recommended antipseudomonal drugs. It is therefore recommended that P. aeruginosa infections are treated using drugs with high sensitivity profile such as Meropenem, Amikacin, and Colistin.