Prevalence and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Pattern of Bacterial Isolates from Respiratory Tract Infections in Ghaem Hospital, Mashhad, Iran

Introduction and objectives: Respiratory tract infection is a serious concern for public health in the worldwide, and imposes a lot of pressure on health facilities, specifically in developing countries along with economic restrictions. This study evaluated the prevalence of bacterial pathogens and their antibiotic sensitivity pattern among patients with Respiratory Tract Infection in Ghaem hospital, Mashhad, east of Iran. Materials and Methods: The etiological and antimicrobial susceptibility profile of respiratory tract infection over a period of six month at Ghaem educational hospital was studied. The specimens were collected and processed according to the standard microbiological methods. Antibacterial susceptibility testing was performed by disc diffusion method following clinical and laboratory standards institute (CLSI) guidelines. Results: There were 868 clinical samples of respiratory tract, which 679 (77.8%) samples were recognized to be culture positive. Out of 679 culture positive, 44% were related to female and 56% to male. The most frequency of respiratory tract infections were occurred in the intensive care unit (ICU) about 60.5% (411/679). Most isolates were obtained from the age group of 60-80 years old (211/679; 31%). The most common isolated were Acinetobacter spp. (35%; 239/679) and Klebsiella pneumonia (20%; 138/679). Antimicrobial profile of Acinetobacter spp and Klebsiella pneumonia showed maximum sensitivity to Amikacin respectively 20.3% and 50.5%; and maximum resistant to ceftazidime respectively 98.1% and 91.2%. Conclusions: According to this study, reducing respiratory infections are effect on reducing mortality and health-care costs. Also, the duration of hospitalization in the ICU especially surgery ICU, is associated with an increased risk of respiratory infection. Therefore, infection control plays an important role in the ICUs.

Keywords:

Respiratory Tract Infections , Antibacterial susceptibility test , intensive care unit