Abstract

The presence of pathogenic Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans causing nosocomial infections to hospitalized patients in four large State hospitals in Adamawa State was investigated for a period of two and half years. One hundred and sixty isolates of each organism were collected from clinical specimens obtained from patients admitted into the hospitals for reasons other than the infection caused by these organisms. Though from each hospital 160 isolates of each organism were collected, there were some variations in the proportions of isolates collected per site at p < 0.05 level of significance. For E. coli, 27.5% isolates were obtained from surgical wound and urinary tract sites. C. albicans was the most common organism associated with urinary tract (35 - 42.5%) and catheter site infections (20 - 25%). Majority of S. aureus isolates obtained were from skin and soft tissue infections (25 - 35%). Antimicrobial susceptibility tests of the isolates performed by the disk diffusion method gave variable results. In case of E. coli,resistance to ampicillin (80%) and tetracycline (82.5%) were particularly high in Specialist Hospital, Yola (SHY), than the other hospitals. The susceptibility data showed that S. aureus isolated from Specialist Hospital Yola (SHY) was resistant to penicillin (65%), ampicillin (77.5%) and tetracycline (72.5%). In this study, a significant number of isolates of C. albicans isolated from Specialist Hospital Yola (SHY), were resistant to miconazole (32.5%), nystatin (30%) and itraconazole (27.5%). The study showed that there are some microorganisms causing nosocomial infections and are not susceptible to some antimicrobial drugs commonly used in the hospitals in Adamawa State, Nigeria. Proportion of the isolates susceptible to antimicrobial drugs depend on the size of the hospital and the type of medical procedures performed in the hospital. 

Key words: Pathogenic, Adamawa State, nosocomial, infections, susceptibility, antimicrobial, resistant.