Bacterial Contamination of Intensive Care Units at a Tertiary Hospital in Bauchi, Northeastern Nigeria

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Abstract
Bacterial contamination of intensive care units is of clinical concern because it is one of the major risk factors of ICU -acquired infections and centre point of multidrug resistant (MDR) pathogens. Periodic surveillance is an early warning signal to non-adherence of basic standard infection control procedures and emergence of MDR pathogens. This study evaluated the bacterial contamination, bacterial pathogens isolated and their antimicrobial susceptibility pattern in the ICU units. The units sampled were adult and neonatal intensive care units, accordingly to previously described methods and analyzed by standard microbiological methods. A total of 113 samples were collected, overall, 71(62.8%) yielded positive bacterial growth, 15(21.1%) detected by open-plate and 14(19.7%) by swabbing in adult intensive care unit and 20(28.2%) and 22(31.0%) in neonatal care unit. Bacillus spp,Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase negative staphylococci spp predominated in both units 24(33.8%), 19(26.8%), 14(19.7%), Other pathogens 19%, clinically relevant pathogens isolated were Eschericia coli (1%), Klebsiella pneumonia(4%) and Streptococcus pneumonia (3%) respectively. High indoor contamination was recorded in both units, 51.7% (n=15) in AICU and 47.6% (n=20) in NICU and inanimate items/equipments. Clinically relevant pathogens were recovered from routinely used equipment and critical sites. High resistance to commonly prescribed and administered agents, cotrimoxazole, amoxicillin and ampicillin was observed. Though the findings has provided a baseline information for furthered surveillance, but the high indoor contamination within both units signify increased traffic, ventilation system problem and inadequate cleaning procedures.

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