Multidrug-Resistant Clinical Infections; Results from a Point Prevalence Study in a Tertiary Resource-Limited Hospital, SouthWest Nigeria

ABSTRACT Multidrug-resistant (MDR) infections are on the rise globally, often exhibiting significant geographical variability and posing a great threat especially in the low- and middle-income countries. We aimed at investigating the prevalence and patterns of MDR clinical infections in our local Hospital. This was a point prevalence study involving admitted patients in our hospital, following routine sample processing, data was extracted from the microbiology processing forms and clinical files of the patients using a well-structured proforma. Ethical approval was sought and obtained for the study. Analysis was done with the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22. There were 101 patients with complete documentation. The age range was from 2 – 65 years, with 58 (57.4%) female and 43 (42.6%) male. There were 17 isolated organisms, of these, 13 (76.5%) were multidrug-resistant. No significant association was found between sex, age, and sub-specialties of the patient and MDR infections. The overall prevalence of MDR infections found among the patients was 12.9%. and more common among the males (61.5%). More MDR infections were recorded among patients in Nephrology subspecialties. The common isolates were S. aureus (n=6, 35.3%), then E. coli (n=3, 17.6%), P. aeruginosa (n=5, 29.4%), Klebsiella spp. (n=6, 17.6%), 76.5% of these organisms were MDRO. The study documents prevalent high multidrug-resistant bacterial infections, calling for urgent and improved effort in the implementation of infection control measures and antibiotic stewardship in our hospitals so as to limit the spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria.