ABSTRACT

Nosocomial or hospital-associated infections are infections that appear newly in a patient after the time of admission in a health care facility. These infections can occur during the treatment of other diseases as well as after the patients have been discharged. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus are among the major causes of severe nosocomial infections. 

The study aimed at determining the antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of S. aureus and P. aeruginosa of clinical isolates obtained from clinical samples in Benin City. S. aureus and P. aeruginosa isolated using cultural and biochemical techniques. The antibiotic resistance pattern was determined using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method.

In total, 30 clinical isolates which include 15 S. aureus and 15 P. aeruginosa were evaluated for antibiotic resistance. S. aureus was observed to be highly resistant to penicillin (73.3%) and tetracycline (66.7%) while also significantly sensitive to ciprofloxacin (86.7%) and gentamicin (73.3%). P. aeruginosa was observed to be highly resistant to piperacillin(60.0%) and piperacillin-tazobactam (53.3%) while significantly sensitive to ciprofloxacin (93.3%), gentamicin (80.0%) and imipenem (73.3%). S. aureus isolates from both in-patients and outpatients were significantly resistant against penicillin and tetracycline. P. aeruginosa isolates from both in-patients and out-patients were highly resistant against piperacillin. Higher resistance was exhibited by isolates from out-patients against piperacillin-tazobactam, ceftazidime and aztreonam when compared with in-patients isolates. It was also observed that all the P. aeruginosa isolates under study demonstrated 100% susceptibility to at least one antibiotic. The use of antimicrobials in human medicine should be monitored and the discriminate use of antibiotics should be curtailed in order to check mate the rise of microorganisms to therapeutic agents.