Prevalence of Surgical Site Infection in a Nigerian University Teaching Hospital

Surgical Site Infection (SSI) is a serious complication that limits the benefits of surgical interventions. It is a serious problem globally and particularly in Africa and other developing countries where inadequate resources and skilled personnel among others are contributing to the acquisition and spread of this infection. This study determined the prevalence of SSI and antibiotics susceptibility pattern of surgical site pathogens at a University teaching hospital in Abuja, Nigeria. Medical records of 729 and 825 patients operated and discharged in the year 2013 and 2014 respectively were examined for documentation of SSI based on Centre for Disease Control (CDC) criteria. In the year 2013 and 2014, the prevalence of SSI was found to be 15.6% and 13.58% respectively. In the two years, Staphylococcus aureus was the most prevalent pathogen causing SSI. This was followed by E. coli in 2013 and Klebsiella spp in 2014. In the two years, majority of the isolates were found to be resistant to the commonly used antibiotics in the hospital. The high SSI prevalence rate observed in this study calls for urgent review of infection control policies of the hospital

Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of clinical carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae isolates from Sokoto, northwest Nigeria

Emergence and spread of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) are two of the major problems currently threatening global public health. In Nigeria, interest in CPE is recent. In Sokoto, northwest Nigeria, there are no data on the prevalence and mechanism underlying carbapenem resistance. In this study, we aimed to investigate the presence of clinical carbapenems-resistant Enterobacteriaceae isolates in two leading hospitals in Sokoto, northwest Nigeria. A total of 292 non-duplicate Enterobacteriaceae isolated from clinical specimens processed in the diagnostic laboratories of two hospitals between January and June 2019 were collected. Of these, 129 (44.2 %) and 19 (6.5%) were resistant to third-generation cephalosporin and carbapenems, respectively. RT-PCR revealed that 10 (7.8%), 19 (14.7%) and 46 (35.7%) of the third-generation cephalosporin-resistant isolates harboured bla(SHV), bla(TEM) and bla(CTX-M) genes, respectively. The modified Carba NP test result showed that only 7 (36.8 %) of the 19 carbapenem-resistant isolates were carbapenemase producing; among them, bla(NDM-5) and bla(OXA-181) genes were identified in five and two isolates, respectively. However, none of the carbapenemase genes investigated, including bla(VIM), bla(KPC) and bla(IMP), was detected in the remaining carbapenem-resistant isolates, suggesting a non-enzymatic mechanism. This study reports for the first time, the emergence of CPE in Sokoto state and the detection of NDM-producing Citrobacter freundii in Nigeria. The observed CPE in this study is a concern in a country where alternative antibiotics are rarely available. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd