Aerobic Bacteria Isolates of Septic Wound Infections and Their Antibiogram in North Central Nigeria

Background: Wound infections are major problem in our health care facilities. They are the most common hospital acquired infections resulting into extended length of stay in the hospital with high cost and frequently encounter in surgical patients. Objectives: The study was designed to determine aerobic bacterial pathogens responsible for wound infections and their antibiotic sensitivity profile among patients of Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH).Methods: Wound swabs were aseptically collected randomly from septic wounds of 345 patients in different sections of the hospital; they were cultured on Blood Agar (BA), McConkey Agar (MCA) and chocolate Aga (CA) and incubated aerobically over night, direct Gram stain were carried out on the wound swabs. The isolates were also examined by Gram stain and each of them were identified using standard biochemical methods. The antibiotic susceptibility of each pathogen was carried out using the disc diffusion method on Muller Hinton Agar. Results: A total of 345 wound swabs were collected and examined, 243 (70.4%) aerobic bacteria were isolated. The out patients had the highest prevalent of 85.3% positive while the least prevalent of 50.0% was recorded from female medical patients. The males had the highest prevalent of 82.1% while 55.0% of medical females were positive for bacteria. Staphylococcus aureus was the highest bacteria reported while the least prevalent of bacteria was Pseudomonas aeruginosa (9.7%). Ofloxacin was highly sensitive for all the bacteria isolated while Amoxicillins, penicilins and cotrimoxazole recorded reduced sensitivity to the isolates. Conclusion: Aerobic bacteria are highly predominant in septic wound and most of the bacteria are resistant to commonly used antibiotics which might be due to inadequate wound management, poor antibiotics selection in most parts of the hospital; and indiscriminate use of antibiotics. Keyword: Wound Aerobic, Bacteria, Infection