Bacterial Isolates and Resistance Patterns in Preterm Infants with Sepsis in Selected Hospitals in Ethiopia: A Longitudinal Observational Study

Abstract

<i>Background:</i> Neonatal sepsis is the third leading cause of neonatal mortality, behind prematurity and intrapartum-related complications. The main objectives of this study are to assess the proportion of sepsis in preterm newborns and identify the etiologic agents and their antibiotic sensitivity patterns. <i>Methods:</i> A longitudinal observational study was done from July 2016 to May 2018. Whenever clinical diagnosis of sepsis was made, blood cultures and antibiotic susceptibility tests were done. <i>Result:</i> We did 690 blood cultures, 255 (36.9%) showing bacterial growth. The most commonly isolated bacteria were <i>Klebsiella species</i> 78 (36.6%), <i>Coagulase negative Staphylococcus</i> 42 (19.7%) and <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> 39 (18.3%). Gram-positive bacteria showed high resistance to penicillin (98.9%) and ceftriaxone (91.3%) whereas Gram-negative bacteria were highly resistant to gentamicin (83.2%) and ceftriaxone (83.2%). <i>Conclusion:</i> Resistance to the more commonly used antibiotics such as ampicillin and gentamycin was very high, necessitating reconsideration of the empiric use of these antibiotics.