Rapid emergence of antibacterial resistance by bacterial isolates from patients of gynecological infections in Punjab, Pakistan.

BACKGROUND PROBLEM: Antibiotic resistance is considered a global problem, where highly emerging antibacterial resistance is posing a great threat to treat infections.

OBJECTIVES

The present study is aimed to highlight emerging resistance of bacteria to commonly used antibiotics in Pakistan.

METHODS

The samples for bacterial culture were obtained using high vaginal swabs (HVS) from female genitalia. The specimens were incubated and identified for subsequent pathogenic bacterial growth. There were 370 bacterial isolates from 520 females provisionally diagnosed for gynecological infections.

RESULTS

Out of total 9 isolated bacteria, Escherichia coli were most common isolates (41.6%) followed by Staphylococcus aureus (15.4%), and coagulase negative staphylococci (12.2%). E. coli exhibited maximum susceptibility to meropenem (98.2%) and imipenem (97.7%) and least to amoxicillin (9.8%) and ampicillin (9.6%). The highest incidence of bacterial infection was found in age group of 26-35 years. Among Gram-positive bacteria, 98.7%, 88.2% and 81.3% were susceptible to vancomycin, cefuroxime and linezolid respectively. For Gram-negative bacteria, 94.3%, 93.6% were susceptible to cefoperazone/sulbactam and meropenem respectively. Recurrence of infection developed among 3.27% of the patients, while two patients died with the infection.

CONCLUSION

Maximum resistance was shown by co-trimoxazole (81.4%), followed by amoxicillin (80.2%). After identifying the causative strain, the susceptible antibiotic should be administered to reduce antibiotic resistance and better control of gynecological infections in female Pakistani population.