Organisms and antibiotic sensitivity patterns in septicemic children of Lahore, Pakistan

Background: The right understanding of antibiotic susceptibility patterns is important for cost effectiveness and outcome of care of septicemic patients.

Objectives: To determine antibacterial resistance patterns against commonly used therapeutic antibiotics in septicemic children of Lahore by isolating and analyzing the most frequently occurring bacterial pathogen from blood samples.

Methods: Twelve hundred blood samples from children with septicemia were processed at the Lahore Identification of Bacteria Laboratory following the Clinical Laboratory Standard Institute reference 2006. Antibiotic sensitivity was analyzed using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method.

Results: The most effective antibiotics against the frequently isolated Klebsiella spp. were piperacillin- tazobactam (87.74%). High antimicrobial resistance was observed with cefuroxime (95.58%) and cefixime (93.38%).

Conclusion: Klebsiella are the most frequently occurring bacterial pathogens from blood samples of children with septicemia. Moreover, the antibiotics to which there was most resistance belong to the cephalosporins, which are among the foremost used antibiotics in Pakistan.