The Prevalence Of Multi-Drug Resistant Pseudomonas Aeruginosa In The Burn’s Unit Of Pelonomi Hospital.

Abstract

Introduction

The occurrence of multi-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa is increasing more daily that possess potential health threat worldwide. Research shows that the resistance occurs through the overuse and misuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics. This study will determine the prevalence of multi-drug resistant bacteria in the burn’s unit of Pelonomi hospital.

Methodology

This is a cohort observational study and therefore data was only collected and observed. The data was collected for all patients 18 years and older that were admitted to the burn’s unit of Pelonomi hospital that tested positive for Pseudomonas aeruginosa and that was tested for sensitivity. A total of 85 samples were collected for this study over 4 months because this was done as part of 4^th year module for the qualification.

Results and discussion

As part of inclusion criteria all 85 patients that were admitted to the burn’s unit of Pelonomi hospital tested positive for Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The sensitivity profile of each patient was recorded for each antibiotic and subjected to statistical analysis. The outcomes would then be classified as resistance, intermediate, and sensitive when compared to the interpretation standards. The observation and calculations on each antibiotic tested, sulfamethoxazole was found to be the least active antibiotic on all the samples (100%), tazobactam resistance (48.24%), imipenem (17.65%), ceftazidime (11.76%), cefepime (8.24%), meropenem (5.88%) and ciprofloxacin and amikacin had (2.35%) resistance each. There was an overall resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa towards all their antibiotics of 24.56% and a sensitivity of 70.15% and 5.29% was intermediate. The results clearly show that there is a high percentage of resistance towards antibiotics that are supposed to work against the bacterium.

Conclusion

The prevalence of antimicrobial resistant P. aeruginosa in the burn’s unit of Pelonomi hospital between the months of 1 March 2023 and 31 August 2023 was 24.56%. This indicates that there is an overall resistance to the antibiotics that are supposed to work against the bacterium. The results correlate with what was reported by Moradali et al showing that P. aeruginosa is associated with mortality in immunocompromised patients and its presence needs monitoring (Moradali et al., 2017). This poses as a threat for the further development of resistance against these antibiotics and is live threatening for patients that already have a compromised immune system in South Africa.