Staphylococci: frequency of isolation and antibiotic susceptibility patterns in Jimma Hospital, south-west Ethiopia

A total of 493 clinical and environmental specimens were collected from May 1997 to August 1998 from Jimma Hospital wards to determine the frequency of isolation and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of staphylococci isolates. The specimens were obtained from pus and discharge (32%), blood (22%), urine (18%), nasal swabs (15%), and environmental samples (12%). Of the total 61 S. aureus isolates, 34 (55.7), 15 (24.6%), 8 (13.1%), and 4 (6.6%) were identified from pus and discharge, nasal swabs, blood, and environmental samples, respectively. Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) were also isolated from nasal swabs (48.3%), pus and discharge (29.2%) and environmental samples (13.5%). Multiple antimicrobial resistance was commonly revealed by the S. aureus isolates (84%). Fifty eight (95%), 57 (93%), 43 (72%), and 30 (49%) of the S. aureus isolates were resistant to penicillin, ampicillin, tetracycline, and streptomycin, respectively. Methicillin resistance was also observed in 25 (43%) of the isolates. Similarly, coagulase-negative staphylococci isolates were multi-antimicrobial resistant (96%). The antimicrobial resistance profile of the CNS isolates observed was against penicillin (88%), ampicillin (87%), tetracycline (75%), and chloramphenicol (66%). By contrast, the S. aureus and CNS isolates appeared to be sensitive to gentamicin, kanamycin, and clindamycin. Options available to treat infections caused by multiple resistant staphylococci are limited especially in developing countries. Therefore, the ever growing emergence of antimicrobial resistance requires enhanced surveillance, prudent use of existing antimicrobial drugs, increased emphasis on infection control, and hygienic practices.

Bacterial isolates from indigenous weaning foods in rural Ethiopian setting, Jimma Zone, south west Ethiopia

A community based bacteriological study of weaning foods was conducted from November 1994 to August 1995 in six peasant associations, Jimma Zone. The households in the study community were found to be in poor sanitary conditions with cattle and pets living in the same room with humans, and the community gets water from unprotected sources. The predominant weaning foods in the study community were cereals. These and other foods given to weaning age children were found to be grossly contaminated, aerobic mesophilic bacterial counts being 10(5) cfu/ml of sample. The most frequent bacterial isolates were Enterobacter sp, Gram positive cocci including Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella sp., Citrobacter sp., and Escherichia coli in that order. Various factors such as unsafe water, unhygienic handling of food, storage of food at ambient temperature for a long time, poor domestic and personal hygiene may have contributed for the gross contamination of weaning foods in the study community. This calls for educating the community on the relationship between contamination of weaning foods and diarrhoeal diseases, and promoting measures such as reheating of weaning foods which have been kept at ambient temperature for a long time before serving infants and children.