Abstract

A total of 200 blood samples were collected from children who had suffer from diarrhea,abdominal pain and fever above 38°C, which are of symptoms of bacteraemia, from Children hospital in Baghdad. The aims were isolation and identification of aerobic bacterial species causing bacteraemia in children and to determine antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of these isolates and their ability to produce extended spectrum ß-lactamases and their plasmid content. The results showed that 70 isolates (60.8%) belonged to Staphylococcus of which, 11 isolates (9%) S. aureus and 59 (51.3%) isolates were S. epidermidis; other bacteria were P. aeruginosa (7 isolates, 6%), E. coli (11 isolates, 9.5%), Klebsiella spp (14 isolates, 12.17%), Acinetobacter baumani (4 isolates, 3.4%), Enterobacter spp (5 isolates, 4.3%), Streptococcus spp (2 isolates, 1.7%),Salmonella spp (1 isolate, 0.8%) and Brucella spp (1 isolate, 0.8%). Sensitivity of the isolates was tested against 12 antibiotics. Results revealed variable in their sensitivity for antibiotics. Amikacin, imipenem and vancomycin were found to be the most effective agents against the isolates. On the other hand, the results showed that 30% of isolates were extended spectrum ß-lactamase producing and having plasmid with different sizes.

Key words: ß-Lactamase, aerobic bacteria, bacteraemia.