English

Abstract

BACKGROUND Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen involved in a variety of nosocomial infections like pneumonia, bacteraemia, wound infection and urinary tract infection. It is also involved in infections of rigorous burns and infections in immunocompromised persons. This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility patterns of pathogenic P. aeruginosa isolated from a variety of clinical specimens in a tertiary care hospital of Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India. METHODS Pseudomonas aeruginosa was identified using standard methods from various clinical samples collected over a period of seven months. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study which was approved by the ethical committee. The study was conducted from January 2019 to January 2020 in the Department of Microbiology at MGM Medical College, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India. This hospital has ICUs, one emergency ward, surgical & medical wards and Out-Patient Departments. RESULTS Our study showed the prevalence of P. aeruginosa during the study period from January 2019 to January 2020 in the Department of Microbiology at MGM Medical College, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India. A total of 1389 clinical samples were aerobically cultured, out of which 758 (54.6 %) yielded significant growth and the rest 630 (45.4 %) samples were either sterile or showed non-significant growth. From 758 positive growth samples, 161 (21.20 %) P. aeruginosa were isolated CONCLUSIONS The high prevalence of P. aeruginosa as an opportunistic nosocomial pathogen and high frequency of antimicrobial resistance among the clinical isolates demand regular monitoring of antibiogram of P. aeruginosa isolates with proper implementation of antimicrobial policy. Antibiotics should be used appropriately with care. Antimicrobial therapy should not be started unless there is clear evidence of infection and infection to be handled with proper infection control measures. KEYWORDS Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pus Samples, Antimicrobial Resistance