Search

Background: Dental caries is a major public oral infectious disease globally due to its high prevalence and significant social impact. Many studies have been conducted on dental caries in Ethiopia; however, they fail to convey the antimicrobial resistance in the oral environment., Objective: This study was conducted to determine the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and biofilm formation in the bacteria isolated from dental caries and its associated factors of dental caries in THE Ayder Comprehensive Specialized Hospital and private dental clinics located at Mekelle, Ethiopia., Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2019 to October 2020. Sociodemographic characteristic, behavioral, and clinical data were collected using structured questionnaires. A total of 422 dental caries-suspected patients were selected and coronal caries scraps were collected by the dentist aseptically; these samples were transported to a microbiological laboratory to identify the antibiotic sensitivity assay and biofilm formation by the isolated pathogens. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 22. The P value of ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant., Results: The overall prevalence of culture-positive samples was found to be 196 (46.4%). From the 196 culture-positive samples, 327 bacteria were isolated. Out of 327 bacterial isolates, 196 (46.4%) were identified as Streptococcus mutans and 69 (35.2%) were identified to be Staphylococcus aureus. From the isolated bacteria, 311 (95.1%) organisms were identified as positive for biofilm formation. From the AST assay, we have identified that penicillin has the highest resistance rate of 76.5%, followed by tetracycline at 64.8%. In contrast, the antibiotics such as cefoxitin and chloramphenicol have a sensitivity of 83.5% and 81.6% to all the bacterial isolates. The overall prevalence of multidrug resistance (MDR) in the isolates was found to be 40.4%. With respect to the associated risk factors, the white spot (AOR = 3.885, 95% CI 1.282-11.767, P = 0.016), gum bleeding (AOR = 2.820, 95% CI 1.006-7.907, P = 0.049), toothache (AOR = 2.27, 95% CI 0.58-0.885, P = 0.033), and chocolate consumption (AOR = 5.314, 95% CI 1.760-16.040, P = 0.003) were statically associated with dental caries bacterial infection., Conclusion: Based on our findings, we recommend the integration of routine culture and AST into clinical practice that might support the diagnosis and management of MDR in dental caries. The education on proper dietary habits might support the prevention and control of dental caries. It is important to provide health education on how to improve oral health in the study area. The education on proper dietary habits might support the prevention and control of dental caries. Further study is needed to find the other determinant factors of dental caries., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Abu Kiros et al.)

Background: Infants infected during pregnancy or while breastfeeding requires early HIV diagnosis at 6 weeks after birth to identify HIV infection and timely treatment. The objective of this work was to determine the prevalence and associated risk factors of HIV among HIV exposed infants in the Tigray regional state, Northern Ethiopia., Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 350 exposed infants born to HIV seropositive mothers from September 01 to December 30, 2016. Convenient consecutive sampling technique was employed to enroll HIV exposed infants from age 6 weeks to 18 months attending prevention of mother to child transmission (PMCT) clinic at Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) site facility in Tigray, Ethiopia. Sociodemographic data and associated risk factors were collected using a structured questionnaire. Dried Blood Spot (DBS) samples were collected from each infant and transported by post to Tigray Health Research Institute to detect HIV infection using real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Data were entered into EPI Info version 7, exported and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22. p-value less than 0.05 was deemed to be statistically significant by Fisher's exact test., Results: Three hundred forty infants (175 males, 165 females) met the criteria for selection during the completion of the study and the overall HIV prevalence was found to be 2.1% (n = 7). The majority of infants were from urban areas (n = 246, 72.4%). 45.5% (5/11, p = 0.001) infants were without ARV prophylaxis, 60% (3/5, p = 0.001) infants born to mothers who did not take maternal PMTCT intervention, 43% (3/7, p = 0.001) infants born to mothers who were not enrolled to ART care, and 6.1% (4/66, p = 0.029) infants of unmarried mothers showed statistically significant difference., Conclusions: The overall prevalence of HIV among exposed infants was high but lower than the Millennium Development Goal targets. In order to eliminate the mother to child HIV transmission (MTCT) ARV prophylaxis in infants must be strengthened, and enrollment of HIV positive pregnant women to PMTCT and ART care and treatment is needed.

Background: Pneumonia is a condition, where bacterial infections are implicated as the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in humans. The actual burden of HIV-infected patients with pneumonia is not well documented in Mekelle region of Ethiopia. This study estimated the prevalence of bacterial pneumonia in HIV patients, antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of pathogens implicated in pneumonia, and associated risk factors in Mekelle zone, Tigray, Northern Ethiopia, during August-December 2016., Methods: Sputum specimens were collected from 252 HIV seropositive individuals with suspected pneumonia. Data on sociodemographics and risk factors were also collected using a structured questionnaire. Blood, Chocolate, and Mac Conkey agar plates (Oxoid, Hampshire, UK) were used to grow the isolates. The isolated colonies were identified based on Gram stain, colony morphology, pigmentation, hemolysis, and biochemical tests. The antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed using the modified Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. The analysis was performed using SPSS version 22 and p-value < 0.05 with corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) was considered statistically significant., Results: Out of the 252 samples, 110 (43.7%) were positive for various bacterial species. The predominant bacterial species were Klebsiella pneumoniae (n=26, 23.6 %) followed by Streptococcus pneumoniae (n=17, 15.5 %), Escherichia coli (n=16, 14.5%), Klebsiella spp. (n=15, 13.6%) , Staphylococcus aureus (n=9, 8.2%), Enterobacter spp. (n=7, 6.3%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (4, n=3.6%), Proteus spp. (n=4, 3.6%), Citrobacter freundii (n=7, 6.3%), Streptococcus pyogenes (3, 2.7%), and Haemophilus influenzae (n=2, 1.8%). Young age (18-29), recent CD4 + count less than 350 cells/mL, alcohol consumption, and HIV WHO stage II showed significant association with the occurrence of bacterial pneumonia. Resistance to penicillin, co-trimoxazole, and tetracycline was observed in 81.8%, 39.8%, and 24.5% of the isolates, respectively., Conclusions: The problem of pneumonia among HIV patients was significant in the study area. The high prevalence of drug-resistant bacteria isolated from the patient's samples possesses a health risk in immunocompromised HIV patients. There is a need to strengthen and expand culture and susceptibility procedures for the administration of appropriate therapy to improve patients management and care which may aid in decreasing the mortality.

Background: Vaginal colonization with group B Streptococcus (GBS) is the predominant risk factor for the development of invasive neonatal GBS diseases and puts newborns at increased risk for morbidity and mortality. This study is aimed to determine the colonization rate and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of group B Streptococcus among pregnant women., Methods: Hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted from August to December 2014 at selected health facilities. A total of 139 antenatal clinics attendees, proportionally allocated, were recruited consecutively. Socio-demographic and clinical factors were collected using a structured questionnaire. Vaginal swabs were collected and cultured on Todd Hewitt broth and in 5 % sheep blood agar. Antimicrobial susceptibility test was done using Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion test. Statistical analysis was performed using Pearson's Chi square test., Results: Among the 139, 19 (13.7 %) were positive for GBS. All the GBS isolates were susceptible (100 %) to penicillin G, vancomycin, ampicillin, erythromycin and gentamicin. Two of the GBS isolates showed multidrug resistance against norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin. No statistically significant difference was observed for GBS colonization with any independent variables., Conclusion: Vaginal colonization of GBS for the present study put emphasis on further investigation and accomplishment of routine GBS screening practices. The recovery of resistant strains to antimicrobial agents recommended in cases of penicillin allergic mothers indicates the importance of susceptibility test.

Background: Post surgical wound infections are global problem in the field of surgery associated with long hospital stay, higher treatment expenditure, morbidity and mortality. Hence to address the limited data in Ethiopia on post surgical wound infections, we conducted this research to determine the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of aerobic bacteria in post-surgical wound infected patients in Ayder teaching and referral hospital, Mekelle, Ethiopia., Methods: Hospital based prospective cross sectional study was carried-out in 128 patients who had undergone surgery in general surgery and orthopaedic wards, and showed symptoms of infection clinically from January to June 2012. Standard bacteriological methods were used for bacterial isolation and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern., Results: A total of 128 patients (98 male and 30 female) with clinical signs of post surgical wound infections were enrolled. The age of the patients ranged from 15-79 years (with mean 35.95 ± 19.01 years). Out of the 128 wound swabs taken, 96/128 (75%) were culture positive aerobically, yielding 123 bacterial isolates. Out of these the predominant bacterial isolates were Staphylococcus aureus 44 (35.77%), Klebsiella species 29 (22.76%) and Coagulase negative Staphylococci (CoNS) 18 (14.63%). No bacterial isolates was found to be sensitive to all antibiotics tested. Isolated bacteria showed 102/123 (82.92%) multi drug resistance to the commonly used antibiotics in the hospital. However, 54/ 65 (83.1%) of Gram negative and 58/58 (100%) of Gram positive isolates were sensitive to Gentamicin and Vancomycin, respectively., Conclusion: Prevalence of was Post-operative wound infections rate in this current study was 75% and multi drug resistance was seen in 102/123(82.92%) of the isolates leaving clinicians with few choices of drugs for the treatment of post surgical wound infected patients. This underscores for periodic surveillance of etiologic agent and antibiotic susceptibility to prevent further emergence and spread of resistant bacteria pathogens.