The Occurrence of Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Contamination in Sub-district Health-promoting Hospitals in Chiang Rai, Thailand

Abstract

Objective: To determine the antibiotic susceptibility patterns (antibiogram profiles) of the bacterial agents usually involved in hospital-acquired infections found in 12 sub-district health-promoting hospitals (HPHs) in Chiang Rai, Thailand.Material and Methods: Swabs from 10 different sampling points in each sub-district HPH were aseptically collected. Standard microbiological methods were performed to define the bacterial species. Antibiotic susceptibility was determined by the disk diffusion method following the standard guidelines of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (2016).Results: The antibiogram profiles of the 153 isolated bacteria showed that 55.6% of the isolates were resistant to antibiotics. Single drug resistant, double drug resistant, and multi-drug resistant bacteria accounted for 18.3%, 18.3%, and 19.0%, respectively. The Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolate was susceptible to all tested antibiotics. MDR phenotypes were most common in coagulase-negative staphylococci (13.1%), followed by members of the family of Enterobacteriaceae (3.9%) and Staphylococcus aureus (0.7%).Conclusion: The MDR rates reported in this study are “worrying”. These results suggest that sub-district HPHs may become sources of HAIs caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria which can be inevitably transmitted into the wider community. Antibiotic stewardship, antibiotic susceptibility surveillance and hygiene practices may be used to prevent and limit the spread of such bacteria from sub-district HPHs to the community.