For appropriate control of infections, it is necessary to possess updated awareness about occurrence of the caus­ative agents. Gram-negative bacteria are considered important microorganisms that cause hospital infections. Clinical multidrug resistant Gram-negative bacteria were obtained from clinical samples including urine, high vaginal swab (HVS), wound swab (WS), stools, ear swab (ES), endocervical swab (ECS), sputum and blood, from Federal Medical Centre (FMC) and Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH) located at Makurdi. Sewer wastewater and sediment samples were also collected from both hospitals using standard sampling techniques and bacteria were isolated using pour plate technique. Identification was done using API 20E kit. Out of the 403 clinical bacteria obtained, 271 were from FMC and 132 from BSUTH; of these, 299 were confirmed Gram-negative (218 from FMC and 81 BSUTH, respectively). Thirty-nine Gram-negative bacteria were also isolated from the sewer samples, that is, from the environmental samples. Pooled frequencies of Gram negative bacteria isolated from clinical samples in both hospitals were: Urine (56.9%), HVS (11.7%), WS (11.4%), stools (7.7%), ES (6.0%), ECS (3.3%), sputum (2.3%) and blood (0.7%). The identified bacteria from the clinical samples from FMC and BSUTH were Escherichia coli (92; 55), Pseudomonas sp. (104; 17), Klebsiella sp. (19; 5) and Proteus sp. (3; 4) respectively.

 

Key words: Antibiotic resistance, Gram-negative bacteria, β-lactams.