A Study on the Bacterial Profile of Bloodstream Infections in Rims Hospital

Introduction: Bacteremia refers to the presence of viable bacteria in blood as evidenced by a blood culture positivity. The rapid and reliable detection of bacteremia by culturing blood is one of the most important functions of a clinical microbiology laboratory. The present study has been taken up to have a better understanding of bacteria causing blood stream infections and their antibiotic sensitivity pattern so as to be a useful guide for clinicians instituting empirical therapy. Methods: The study was carried out in the Department of Microbiology, RIMS, Imphal over a period of two years from November 2010 to October 2012. During the study period, 280 patients samples from both the inpatients as well as outpatients attending various departments were processed and bacterial pathogens were identified by conventional methods. Subsequently, antimicrobial testing was carried out by Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method as per CLSI recommendations. Results: Out of the 280 clinically diagnosed cases of bacteremia, 47 (16.78%) were culture positive, all monomicrobial (100%). Gram negative bacteria constituting 23/47 (51.06%) while gram positive isolates were 23/47 (48.93%). Out of the forty seven isolates. Salmonella Typhi (29.78%) was the most common organism, followed by CoNS (27.65%), Staphylococcus aureus (19.14%) , Escherichia coli (10.63%) and Acinetobacter spp (6.38%). This study showed that vancomycin, imipenem, gentamicin and ceftriaxone are the most effective antibiotics against most of the bacterial pathogens isolated in the study.