NEONATAL SEPSIS: A STUDY OF CAUSATIVE PATHOGENS AND THEIR ANTIMICROBIAL SENSITIVITY PATTERN AT TERTIARY HOSPITAL

Background: Neonatal sepsis is a clinical syndrome of bacterial infection characterized by signs and symptoms of systemic involvement during first month of life. It is a common cause of morbidity and mortality in full term and preterm neonates. The microorganisms and their sensitivity pattern vary from region to region and time to time. The current study was conducted to know the pattern of bacterial organisms at a tertiary level hospital and their response to commonly used antibiotics. Material Methods: This descriptive study was conducted at Special Care Baby Unit, Department of Child Health and Microbiology Section Department of Pathology, Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, from February 2010 to January 2011. Blood was taken from 456 consecutive neonates admitted to Special Care Baby Unit fulfilling criteria for neonatal sepsis. The clinical and laboratory data was recorded. Result: A total of 456 blood cultures were taken, out of these 88(19.3%) were positive. Escherichia coli was the most common organism found in 36(40.91%) cases, followed by Klebsiella spp. in 17(19.32%), Staphylococcus aureus 14(15.91%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa 12(13.63%) and Staphylococcus epidermidis in 9(10.23%). All isolates showed low sensitivity to ampicillin, good sensitivity to cefotaxime ceftazidime, and maximum sensitivity to amikacin, cefepime, ciprofloxacin, meropenem and vancomycin. Conclusion: Neonatal sepsis is a leading cause of neonatal admissions, morbidity and mortality in developing countries. Drug resistance is one of the emerging issues especially for routinely used antibiotics as found in our study