3 research outputs found
Antimicrobial Resistance of Bacterial Agents of the Upper Respiratory Tract of School Children in Buea, Cameroon
The study was aimed at determining bacterial agents of the upper
respiratory tract and the susceptibility patterns of isolates to
antibiotics. In total, 200 throat swabs were obtained from students
attending different boarding schools within the Buea Municipality and
screened to obtain the prevalence of respiratory pathogens and to
understand the antibiotic susceptibility patterns of isolates using
standard microbiological procedure and the disc-diffusion test. Of the
200 samples screened, 112 (56%) had positive cultures with the dominant
bacterial pathogens being Haemophilus influenzae (20%), followed by
Streptococcus pneumoniae (15%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (11%), and
Staphylococcus aureus (10%). Although 56% of the isolates were
recovered from females compared to 44% from males, the difference was
not statistically significant (p>0.05). Sixty-seven percent of the
pathogens were isolated from the age-group of 10-13 years, 19.6% from
the age-group of 14-17 years, and 12.5% from the age-group of 18-21
years. Antibiotic susceptibility testing revealed that gentamicin (92%)
and cefuroxime (88.4%) were the most effective antibiotics against the
isolates. Generally, susceptibility ranged from 0% to 92% depending on
the antibiotic and the species of microorganism. Penicillin had the
highest (100%) resistance to all the isolates. The findings revealed
that students living in boarding schools in the Buea Municipality were
at risk of acquiring upper respiratory tract infections from their
peers since the upper respiratory tract of more than 50% of the
students was colonized with respiratory pathogens. Although
multidrug-resistant strains of organisms were identified, gentamicin
and cefuroxime are recommended as the first-line antibiotics of choice
against the pathogens. There is, therefore, a need for surveillance of
nasopharyngeal carriage of resistant strains of these organisms,
especially H. influenzae in unhealthy school children since the vaccine
is yet to be introduced in Cameroon. The findings have clinical and
epidemiological significance
Antimicrobial Resistance of Bacterial Agents of the Upper Respiratory Tract of School Children in Buea, Cameroon
The study was aimed at determining bacterial agents of the upper
respiratory tract and the susceptibility patterns of isolates to
antibiotics. In total, 200 throat swabs were obtained from students
attending different boarding schools within the Buea Municipality and
screened to obtain the prevalence of respiratory pathogens and to
understand the antibiotic susceptibility patterns of isolates using
standard microbiological procedure and the disc-diffusion test. Of the
200 samples screened, 112 (56%) had positive cultures with the dominant
bacterial pathogens being Haemophilus influenzae (20%), followed by
Streptococcus pneumoniae (15%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (11%), and
Staphylococcus aureus (10%). Although 56% of the isolates were
recovered from females compared to 44% from males, the difference was
not statistically significant (p>0.05). Sixty-seven percent of the
pathogens were isolated from the age-group of 10-13 years, 19.6% from
the age-group of 14-17 years, and 12.5% from the age-group of 18-21
years. Antibiotic susceptibility testing revealed that gentamicin (92%)
and cefuroxime (88.4%) were the most effective antibiotics against the
isolates. Generally, susceptibility ranged from 0% to 92% depending on
the antibiotic and the species of microorganism. Penicillin had the
highest (100%) resistance to all the isolates. The findings revealed
that students living in boarding schools in the Buea Municipality were
at risk of acquiring upper respiratory tract infections from their
peers since the upper respiratory tract of more than 50% of the
students was colonized with respiratory pathogens. Although
multidrug-resistant strains of organisms were identified, gentamicin
and cefuroxime are recommended as the first-line antibiotics of choice
against the pathogens. There is, therefore, a need for surveillance of
nasopharyngeal carriage of resistant strains of these organisms,
especially H. influenzae in unhealthy school children since the vaccine
is yet to be introduced in Cameroon. The findings have clinical and
epidemiological significance