Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance has become a serious public health concern all over the world. The objective of this study was to determine susceptibility patterns of microorganisms to antibiotics in 11 hospital laboratories in Kurdistan province. During one month period (February, 2010), all the clinical specimens which were received from the laboratories were processed for isolation and identification of bacteria to the species level by standard methods. Testing procedures were validated following the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion technique using Muller Hinton agar. Susceptibility testing was performed on Mueller–Hinton agar. A total of 4395 clinical specimens were obtained from 4301 patients among them, 1062 (24.7%) were male and 3239 (75.3%) were female, giving on overall male to female ratio of 0.32. Their mean age was 31.3 years (range: 4 to 74 years). Based on data 310 pathogens were isolated and Escherichia coli 183 (59.3%), followed Klebsiellapneumoniae 40 (01.29%) and Staphylococcus aureus 39 (1.25%) were the predominant isolated bacteria. The most resistant antibiotics tested against isolated bacteria were penicillin, ampicillin, and amoxicillin. Lastly, these resistance rates leave imipenem and ciprofoxcacin as the reliable agent for the empirical treatment in this province. The present study has shown that the urinary tract infection (UTI) patients have a higher rate of infection. The risk of antibiotic resistance in isolated bacteria, particularly E. coli, emphasizes the importance of hospital control measures and rational prescribing policies. Lastly, these resistance rates leave ciprofloxcacin and imipenem as the reliable agent for the empirical treatment in this province.

Key words: Antimicrobial resistance, Escherichia coli, ciprofloxacin and imipenem.