A survey of Enterobacteriaceae in hospital and community acquired infections among adults in a tertiary health institution in Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Hospital and community acquired infections, continue to be a threat to public health, causing morbidities and mortalities. This survey was carried out to determine the prevalence of Enterobacteriaceae in nosocomial and community acquired infections among adults in LAUTECH Teaching Hospital in Osogbo southwestern Nigeria. Two hundred and forty isolates from General Out Patient Department (GOPD) and two hundred and forty isolates from different wards (Surgical, Medical, Gyneacological, Pediatric, Burn Unit and Ear, Nose and Throat wards) of the hospital were collected. The bacterial strains were isolated from Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), Urine, Pus, Ear swab, Blood, Sputum and Pleural fluid. The isolates were identified on the basis of standard microbiological and biochemical techniques as describe by Cowan and Steel. The incidence of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Proteus vulgaris,Enterobacter cloacae and Citrobacter freundii was studied according to their distribution among different wards and nosocomial patients, specimens and age groups of patients. Five genera belonging to the family of bacteria Enterobacteriaceae were isolated from 240 community acquired infections and hospital acquired infections in different wards according to different age groups in this study. E. coli were most frequent in all the specimens with 49.2 and 47.5% for urine samples in community acquired and nosocomial infection respectively. Nosocomial infections are common with E. coli and K. pneumoniaecausing a significant proportion of these community acquired infections. Key words: Enterobacteriacae, hospital acquired, community, tertiary health institution.