Antibiotics surveillance: A survey on the susceptibility of microorganisms to antibiotics in respiratory tract infections

Background: Resistance to antibiotics is clearly increasing in many Asian countries and is of particular concern in Streptococcus pneumoniae. The genetic relationship between penicillin-resistant S. pneumoniae strains from across Asia suggests that resistant clones have spread within and between countries. This study is done to evaluate the resistance patterns of microorganisms to antibiotics in respiratory tract infections by undertaking a surveillance study by using antibiogram reports.

Methods: The study was designed to determine the susceptibility of respiratory isolates of microorganisms to antibiotics. The bacterial strains were isolated from patients suffering from respiratory tract infections. This study had two phases. Phase-I: Retrospective study and Phase- II: Prospective Study. 147 subjects were included whose antibiogram reports available in the study.

Results: The analysis of microbial culture reports obtained from the patients’ files showed that in the retrospective study among the various specimens sent for obtaining culture report, sputum specimens were most commonly employed in 49.09% of the cases whereas in the remaining cases bronchial wash (41.81%), pleural fluids (5.45%) and throat swab (3.63%) specimens were used. In the prospective study, bronchial wash was more commonly used in about 48.64% of cases while sputum specimen was used in 45.94% of the patients. Pleural fluids and throat swab were used in 2.7% of patients

Conclusions: The sensitivity of Pencillins against all the isolates of organisms fell far above the acceptable levels indicating wide spread and inappropriate use of Penicillin in the community. Cephalosporins were found to be highly sensitive to gram negative species understandably. Monobactams showed absolute sensitivity towards Pseudomonas but were found to be resistant against Klebsiella.So it is the time to think, plan and formulate a strong antibiotic policy to address this present scenario.