African Journal of Medicine and Surgery

African Journal of Medicine and Surgery ISSN 3156-8734 Vol. 6 (6), pp. 001-005, June, 2019. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research paper

Antibiotic susceptibility and plasmid pattern of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from the surgical unit of a university teaching hospital in north central Nigeria

A. T. Olayinka¹*, B. O. Olayinka² and B. A. Onile³

¹Department of Medical Microbiology, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Nigeria.

²Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria

³Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria

Accepted 15 February, 2019

Abstract

This study determined the susceptibility pattern and multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) index of 92 Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains from clinical samples comprising mainly urine (51.1%) and wounds (41.3%) obtained from the surgical units of Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Nigeria; over a 24-month period. The strains were susceptible to imipenem (94.6%), ciprofloxacin (90.2%), amikacin (89.1%) and ceftazidime (78.3%) but resistant to ofloxacin (82.6%), perfloxacin (58.7%) and gentamicin (35.8%). Analysis of the MAR index of isolates revealed that 60.9% had MAR index of 0.3 and above, which is an indication of probable origin from the hospital environment where antibiotics are extensively used. A strict management of antibiotic policies and a continuous surveillance programme for multidrug resistant pathogens like P. aeruginosa in specialised units is advocated.

Key words: Antibiotic resistance, plasmid, Pseudomonas aeruginosa