Bacterial Resistance in Argolis, Greece

Abstract

Objectives: To study the antibiotic resistance in the microorganisms isolated from blood cultures at the General Hospital of Argos, Greece during the period 01/01/05 to 31/10/2007. Methods: 791 blood cultures were studies. The identification and the antimicrobial susceptibility tests were performed using the analysis Bact/ALERT and the automat system VITEK 2 compact (BIOMERIEUX). Results: From the 791 blood cultures 661(83,56%) were negative and 130(16,43%) were positive. CONS-coagulase negative staphylococci were the most common isolated bacteria [50 samples (38,46%)], followed by E. coli [25 samples (19,23%)], Brucella melitensis [21 samples (16,15%)], Staphylococcus aureus [12 samples(9,23%)], Pseudomonas auroginosa [7 samples (5,38%)], Klebsiella pneumoniae [3 samples (2,3%)], Enterobacter cloacae [3 samples (2,3%)], Enterococcus faecalis [2 samples (1,53%)]. The resistance of E. coli to Ampicillin, Amoxicylin/clavulanic, ciprofloxacin and 3rd generation cephalosporins were 36%, 12%, 8% and 0% respectively. CONS and Staphylococcus aureus presented 48% and 16,66% resistance to Oxacillin respectively and 0% resistance to Vancomycin. Pseudomonas aureginosa presented 28,57% resistance to ceftazidime, aminoglycosides and imipenem and 42,85% resistance to ciprofloxacin and piperacillin. For Klebsiella pneumoniae the resistance rate was 0% to imipenem, 33,33% to aminoglycosides, 66,66% to ciprofloxacin and 3rd generarion cephalosporins. The enterococcus faecalis strains presented 0% resistance to vancomycin and linezolid. Conclusions: Comparing these results to those of EARSS (European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System), 2006, was observed that the antibiotic resistance prevalence of E. coli was lower in this region than that of the rest of Greece and European countries (fluoroquinolones 8% in Argolis, 14,5% in Greece, 29,2% in Germany, 28% in Spain, 13,8% in France, for cephalosporins in Argolis 0%, in Greece 6,1%, UK 7,7%, Italy 7,4%). The resistance to vancomycin of Staphylococcus aureus 0% is similar to that seen in European countries. Pseudomonas auroginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae presented significant resistance rate to other countries. Greece has the higher resistance rate to imipenem, 47,6% for pseudomonas and 32,9% for Klebsiella and also to Ceftazidime for Pseudomonas 34,1% but in Argolis it was 28,57% resistance to imipenem for Pseudomonas, 0% for Klebsiella and 28,57% resistance of Pseudomonas to ceftazidim.