Nosocomial infection in surgical site wounds caused by staphylococcus aureus and pseudomonas aeruginosa: case study of four major hospitals in Benue State

Abstract

Surgical sites wound swab specimens were collected from four major hospitals in Benue State Nigeria namely; Federal Medical Centre Makurdi, General hospital Gboko, General hospital Otukpo and General hospital North bank, Makurdi over a period of seven months and were examined bacteriologically.. Out of a total of 300 samples examined, 170 had bacterial isolates and of these 61(35.9%) were Pseudomonas aeruginosa, 39(22.9%) Staphylococcus aureus and 25(14.7%) co-infection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Other bacterial isolates were Klebsiella species 12(7.1%), Escherichia coli 10(5.9%), atypical coliform 8(4.7%), Proteus species 7(4.1%), Enterococcus faecalis 4(2.4%) and Streptococcus pyogenes 4(2.4%). The incidence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa was higher at Federal Medical Centre Makurdi (33; 25.3%) than at other hospitals namely General Hospital Gboko (24; 34.3%), General Hospital Otukpo (14; 20.6%) and General Hospital North Bank Makurdi (15; 23.8%). Staphylococcus aureus occurred also more at the Federal Medical Centre Makurdi (24; 24.2%) than at General Hospital Gboko (16; 22.9%), General Hospital Otukpo (12; 17.6%) and General Hospital North Bank Makurdi (12; 19.0%). There were no significant differences between the hospital facilities and the microbial infections at significance level of (p>0.05). The findings in this study suggest that patients, patient’s caregivers and health workers should adhere strictly to guidelines and policies on nosocomial infection preventions and control.