Evaluation of Bacterial Profile and Drug Resistance Patterns of Blood Culture Isolates in Amir Al-Momenin Hospital of Gerash, Iran

Introduction: Bacterial bloodstream diseases cause important public health problems and are considered as significant issues in morbidity and mortality in patients who are hospitalized. This study aimed to investigate the frequency of bacterial isolates from suspected septicemia and subsequent drug resistance patterns in affiliated patients to the Amir Al-Momenin Hospital of Gerash, Fars, Iran. Materials and Methods: In this hospital-based cross-sectional study, 2485 blood samples were examined in the Bacteriology Laboratory of Amir Al-Momenin Hospital of Gerash, during 2018-2019. Then, drug susceptibility tests were done for positive blood cultures. All specimens were cultivated in MacConkey agar, Blood Agar, and chocolate agar mediums. A total of 120 positive samples were obtained, and biochemical tests were used to classify bacteria to species levels. After identification, a drug susceptibility test was carried out on the Mueller-Hinton agar via 16 antibiotics based on the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines. Results: Of the 2485 blood culture results, 120 (4.82%) were determined as positive. The blood culture examination revealed the most common isolated as Staphylococcus epidermidis (45%, n=54 cases), Acinetobacter baumannii (10.83%, n=13 cases), Escherichia coli (10%, n=12 cases), Klebsiella pneumoniae (5.83%, n=7 cases), respectively. Additionally, among all the antibiotics tested, the highest percentage of resistance was related to cefoxitin in 48 cases (40%), cephalexin in 47 (39.1%), clindamycin in 47 (39.1%), and erythromycin in 42 (35%). Conclusions: Results revealed that most of the bacterial isolates had a high rate of resistance to the most commonly used antibiotics. Therefore, continuous antibiotic resistance pattern evaluation in different areas is necessary.