Prevalence of MDR pathogens in blood and bodyfluids of Paediatric patients in a tertiary care hospital.

Nowadays, antimicrobial resistance is a challenge faced by physicians globally. Infections due to Multidrug Resistant Organisms (MDROs) is a significant problem in Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). AIM To identify the burden of antimicrobial resistance in hospital isolates from paediatric patients and elucidate the resistance pattern of MDROs. MATERIAL AND METHODS All the clinical specimen received from pediatric outpatient and inpatient were included in the study and data were collected and processed on blood agar, chocolate agar and MacConkey agar. Cled agar from those yielding growth on urine culture. The bacterial isolates were identified with standard bio-chemical tests. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was done according to CLSI guidelines 2019 by Kirby Bauer disk diffusion method. RESULTS A total of 100 (39.07%) bacteria were isolated from 256 clinical samples, 65 bisolates were from urine followed by blood (22), exudates (9) and respiratory (4) samples. 22 were MDROs,14 were from urine, blood(5), exudates(2) and respiratory(1) samples respectively. Isolates of E. coli (54%), Klebsiella spp (36%). and Enterococcus (0.9%) spp. were the common MDROs. The most sensitive antibiotic for gram negative bacteria was Polymyxin-B (100%) followed by Imipenem (98%) and Meropenem (90%). The most sensitive antibiotic for gram positive bacteria was Linezolid (100%), Vancomycin (97%) followed by Teicoplanin (94%). CONCLUSION This study reveals significant prevalence of MDR pathogens among paediatric population. E. coli, Klebsiella spp. and Enterococcus spp. were the common MDROs encountered in the study, mostly isolated from urine culture.