Antibiotic Resistance Patterns of Strains of Salmonella Typhi and Staphylococcus Aureus Isolated from Patients in three Hospitals in Kumasi, Ghana

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Date
2011
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In Ghana, S. aureus and S. typhi are common causes of human infections and are also recognized as pathogens of high public significance. Despite these evidences, isolation of bacteria and testing of their sensitivities to antibiotics are hardly practiced in our hospitals. As a result, there is very little information on the antibiotic susceptibility patterns of S. typhi and S. aureus. This study therefore sought to determine the occurrence and extent of resistance of S. typhi and S. aureus isolated from patients in three hospitals namely Kumasi South, North Suntreso and Tafo hospitals to antibiotics. A total of 1200 samples obtained from patients suspected to have bacterial infections were analyzed for the presence of S. aureus and S. typhi. Out of this number, 128 samples had S. typhi and 109 had S. aureus. The isolates were then subjected to antibiotic sensitivity testing using a modified Kirby-Bauer method. The study revealed that infection of S. typhi and S. aureus did not differ statistically between the sexes. S. typhi isolates were evenly distributed among the various age groups, but there were significant differences among the various age groups in relation to S. aureus isolates. The most susceptible age group to S. aureus was the 20-29 years age group. The variation in the S. typhi and S. aureus among the clinical samples from the three hospitals was not statistically significant. The antibiotic susceptibility patterns of S. typhi revealed that 52.8% of the isolates were resistant to Ampicillin. The resistance levels of S. typhi to other antibiotics were low with 17.2% being resistant to ciprofloxacin, 32.8% to co-trimoxazole, 14.8% to ceftriaxone and 25.0% to chloramphenicol. The intermediate resistance levels of the S. typhi isolates to these five antibiotics were very low with 6.3% exhibiting intermediate resistance to ciprofloxacin and co-trimoxazole, 12.5% to ampicillin, 14.8% to ceftriaxone and 16.4% to chloramphenicol. S. aureus also showed a resistance of xiii 42.6% to gentamicin, 40.7% to ampicillin, 49.1% to erythromycin, 43.5% to ceftriaxone and 20.4% to vancomycin. The numbers of intermediate resistant S. aureus to the antibiotics were few except for ceftriaxone which recorded a value of 39.8%. The percentage of multiple-drug resistance among the S. typhi and S. aureus isolates were 19.5% and 32.1% respectively. The usefulness of these antibiotics will therefore depend on the effective interventions put in place by health authorities to curb the spread of resistance among bacterial strains to antibiotics
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A thesis submitted to the Department of Pharmaceutics in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Philosophy (Mphil.) in Pharmaceutical Microbiology
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