Browsing by Author "Dickson, Ocansey Wiredu Kofi"

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    Characterization of Salmonella and other gram negative bacterial pathogens obtained from stool and blood at Cape Coast Teaching Hospital
    (May, 2016) Dickson, Ocansey Wiredu Kofi
    Salmonella infections are of serious public health concern since these bacteria have been reported as the most frequently cause of foodborne illness and a common cause of human gastroenteritis and bacteremia worldwide. In addition to the increasing rate and invasiveness of salmonellosis, these bacteria are constantly developing resistance to the commonly tested antibiotics. This study was conducted to characterize Salmonella among other isolates from stool and blood cultures at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital. A total of 971 samples comprising of 463 blood and 508 stool were collected and cultured over a 13 month period (March, 2014 – April, 2015). 17 (3.3%) Salmonellae and 3 (0.6%) Shigella flexneri were recovered from the stool samples cultured and the blood samples yielded bacteria other than Salmonella. There was 69/463 (14.9%) prevalence of bacterial isolates from blood. The blood isolates included Staphylococcus aureus (24/69, 34.8%), Citrobacter freundii (10/69, 14.5%), Escherichia coli (6/69, 8.7%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (6/69, 8.7%). The Salmonella serovars encountered were Salmonella Typhi (13/17, 76.5%) and Salmonella Typhimurium (4/17, 23.5%). There was 82% (14/17) multidrug resistance among the Salmonellae with resistance to ampicillin, co-trimoxazole and tetracycline being 65% each. Among the Salmonellae, no drug resistance was observed against cefotaxime, ceftriaxone, gentamycin, amikacin, meropenem, levofloxacin and ciprofloxacin and none produced ESBL. Among the blood isolates, resistance to ampicillin, tetracycline and co-trimoxazole were 96%, 91%, 87% respectively. The PFGE analysis indicated different clones that were closely related among the Salmonella Typhi. A similar analysis was observed among the Salmonella Typhimurium gel pattern analyzed.