bacteremia among jordanian children at princess rahmah hospital: pathogens and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns

objective: to investigate microorganisms causing bacteremia in jordanian children and to assess their sensitivity to various groups of antimicrobials. methods: a retrospective study was conducted on positive blood cultures taken from 378 children aged below 15 year, who sought medical attention at princess rahmah hospital between january and december/2008. results: out of 4475 tested blood samples, 378 isolates were recovered from blood cultures. the male to female isolate ratio was (1.26:1.0). the most frequent pathogen found was staphylococcus aureus (86.2%), followed by klebsiella spp. (9%), escherichia coli (1.9%), streptococcus spp. (1.9%), pseudomonas spp. (0.8%), and acinetobacter sp. was found in only one culture (0.3%). the susceptibility rate of s. aureus was recorded the highest (99.6%) for vancomycin, and the lowest susceptibility rate (3.2%) was recorded for aztreonam. conclusions: staphylococcus aureus was the main isolate in bacteremic children, with all isolates demonstrating susceptibility to vancomycin. overall, aztreonam resistance was near 97%, and this rate was not affected by sex and blood isolate type. this information should be considered when empirical therapy is recommended or prescribed for children with bacteremia.