Study of some Virulence Factors for Clostridium perfringens isolated from Clinical Samples and Hospital Environment and showing their Sensitivity to Antibiotics

Abstract

The study included taking 100 samples from different clinical sources, including wounds and burns, and from the hospital environment, in Kirkuk General Hospital and Azadi Teaching Hospital in the city of Kirkuk for the period from November 2017 to August 2018. The results of isolation and diagnosis showed the growth of 30 isolates that are positive for Clostridium perfringens, distributed between 15 isolates 37.5% from burns, 11 isolates 27.5% from wounds, and 4 isolates 20% from the hospital environment. These isolates were diagnosed based on microscopical, cultural and biochemical tests, in addition to being diagnosed with the Api 20A system. The sensitivity of isolates was tested toward a number of types of antibiotics, and all bacterial isolates showed a high sensitivity 100% against imipenem. As for the sensitivity to vancomycin, amikacin, tetracycline was 96.66, 90, and 66.66% respectively. While, all isolates showed a high resistance to metronidazole and colistin 100%, some virulence factors of C. perfringens isolates have been studied , and showed that all isolates (%100) have the ability to produce hemolysin, lecithinase, capsule, and spore, while 70% of the isolates produced DNAase.